The Yoga Of The Bhagavat Gita

THE YOGA OF THE
BHAGAVAT GITA

BY

SRI KRISHNA PREM

LONDON

JOHN M. WATKINS

21 CECIL COURT, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C. 2
1948

Printed in Great Britain by
Neill & Co , Ltd., Edinburgh.

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY GURU* SRI KRISHNA
SEVIKA* SRI SRI YASHODA MAI* TO WHOM ALONE
IS DUE WHATEVER TRUTH ITS PAGES CONTAIN

PREFACE

This book originated in a series of articles which were to be
written for The Aryan Path of Bombay on the significance of
the chapter titles of the Gita. The Editors altered the title to
The Song of the Higher Life, and, before I knew where I was, I
found myself engaged on a running commentary on the Gita
as a whole. Partly owing to the nature of the Gita itself, and
partly because of the exigencies of publication in monthly
instalments, a certain amount of repetition was involved. I
have tried to eliminate as much as possible, but for any that
remains I can only beg the indulgence of the reader.

My thanks are due to the Editors of The Aryan Path for
their kind permission to reprint the series in book-form. The
present is a revised version, a certain amount of new matter
and several appendices having been added. My thanks are
also due to my pupil Srimati Arpita Devi, who typed out the
manuscript and gave me invaluable help throughout ; also to
Mr Bertram Keightley for going through it and making
valuable suggestions.

Sri Krishna Prem.

Mirtola*

India*

1937 *

CONTENTS

PAGE

Preface ix

Introduction xiii

Prolegomena : The General Setting . . xix

CHAPTER

I. The Yoga of the Dejection of Arjuna . i

II. The Yoga of the Discriminative Wisdom . 7

III. The Yoga of Action .... 19

IV. The Yoga of the Partial Knowledge . 29

V. The Yoga of Renunciation ... 38

‘VI. The Yoga of Meditation .... 47

•VII. The Yoga of Knowledge .... 59

VIII. The Yoga of the Imperishable Eternal . 68

IX. The Yoga of the Royal Science and Royal

Secret 79

X. The Yoga of the Pervading Powers . . 90

XI. The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form . 102
1 XII. The Yoga of Devotion . . . .112

XIII. The Yoga of Distinction between the Field

AND THE KNOWER OF THE FIELD . . I23

XIV. The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas 135

XV. The Yoga of the Highest Spirit . . 145

XVI. The Yoga of the Division between the Bright

and Dark Powers . . . .156

• XVII. The Yoga of the Threefold Faith . . 166

XVIII, The Yoga of the Renunciation of Liberation 177

~~ - xi

xn THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Appendix A. Note on the terms Consciousness and

PAGE

Form . . . r .

195

35

B. Note on the words Soul and Matter .

198

33

C. Note on the Four States of Con-

sciousness

200

33

D. Note on Avataras ....

203

33

E. Diagram of the Cosmic Levels

205

33

F. Note on the Process of Cosmic Mani-

festation

207

33

G. Note on the After-Death Paths

211

33

H. Note on the Five Elements .

214

Glossary

■»••••**

217

INTRODUCTION

The Bhagavat Gita needs little introduction nowadays even in
the West. Many have come to value it as one of the world’s
great spiritual classics and not a few take it as their guide to
the inner life. Of its popularity in India there is no need to
speak. Though its author is unknown (for we can scarcely
adopt the orthodox view that it was* as we have it, spoken by
the historical Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra ) it is
revered by Hindus of all schools of thought, and is one foot of
the triple base on which the Vedanta is founded, the other two
feet being the Upanishads and the Brahma-Sutras. Every
teacher who wished to claim Vedantic authority for his teachings
was obliged to write a commentary on it showing that it
supported his views.

In consequence of this we have commentaries written from
many diverse points of view, monist and dualist, pantheist and
theist. Enthusiasts for action, for knowledge ( jnana or gnosis),
or for devotion to a personal God, all find their special
tenets in the Gita, and, though this universal appeal is proof
of its catholicity, its authoritative status has had the drawback
that the various commentators have often devoted more energy
to special pleading and refutation of opponents than to straight-
forward inquiry into the real meaning of the text.

Into the views (equally diverse) of the Western scholars,
with their incurably external method of approach, it is not
proposed to enter. Garbe considered it a Sankhya-Yoga
textbook overwritten by Krishna worshippers and then again
by a Vedantist, while Hopkins held that it was a Vishnu-ite
poem worked up in the interests of the Krishna cult. Nearly
all of them object to what they term its philosophical incon-
sistencies and loose use of terms.

'smt

xiv THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

#

Let me say at once that I care nothing at all for these learned
pronouncements. To anyone who has eyqg to see, the Gita is
based on direct knowledge of Reality, and of the Path that
leads to that Reality, and it is of little moment who wrote it
or to what school he was outwardly affiliated. Those who
know Reality belong to a Race apart, the Race that never dies,
as Hermes Trismegistus puts it, and neither they nor those
who seek to be born into that Race concern themselves with
the flummeries of sects and schools.

It is by such a seeker and for such seekers that this book
has been written. Some may feel that the interpretation is a
somewhat modernised one, but in answer to that I would only
say that the words of an Enlightened One refer to eternal
realities. Those realities are the same now as they were
thousands of years ago, and the texts of the Gita should be
interpreted in words that refer to those realities here and now,
and not merely in words which did refer to them in mediaeval
India or, for that matter, at the time when the book was
originally written. To think otherwise is to mistake words for
realities. As the Buddha teaches in the Lankdvatara Sutra :
“ Meaning is entered into by words as things are revealed by
a lamp. ... So, I, making use of various forms and images
of things, instruct my sons ; but the summit of Reality can
only be realised within oneself.”

The point of view from which this book has been written is
that the Gita is a textbook of Yoga, a guide to the treading of
the Path. By Yoga is here meant not any special system called
by that name, not jndna yoga , nor karma yoga, nor bhakti
yoga, nor the eightfold yoga of Patanjali, but just the Path
by which man unites his finite self with Infinite Being. It is
the inner Path of which all these separate yogas are so many
one-sided aspects. It is not so much a synthesis of these
separate teachings as that prior and undivided whole of which
they represent partial formulations.

As such, it deals with the whole Path from the beginning to
the end, from what Buddhists term “ Entry in the str eam ”

INTRODUCTION

xv

to the goal of Nirvana. It follows that the sequence of the
chapters is of great importance, and that it is a mistake to do
as some expositors ha^e done and expound the teachings with
no reference to the place at which they occur in the general
scheme. For instance, stress has often been laid on Gita
xviii, 66 : “ Abandoning all dharmas , take refuge in Me alone.
Fear not, I will liberate thee from all sins,” as though this
teaching, which comes at the very end of the Gita, were capable
of being practised in the early stages of the Path. All that
results from such misplacing is emotional pietism. There is no
short-cut to the Goal. The whole course has to be run by each
disciple, and though, through having practised in previous lives,
the early stages may for some be but a rapid recapitulation,
each chapter has to be lived through in its proper sequence.

The Path is not the special property of Hinduism, nor
indeed of any religion. It is something which is to be found,
more or less deeply buried, in all religions, and which can
exist apart from any formal religion at all. That is why the
Gita, though a definitely Hindu book, the very crest-jewel of
Hindu teachings, is capable of being a guide to seekers all over
the world.

Recently the psychologist Jung, in the course of some
sympathetic and interesting comments on a Chinese Taoist
book, found occasion to animadvert against those Westerners
who practise Eastern yogas. It is quite true that much,
probably most, of the so-called yoga practice indulged in by
Westerners is foolish and misguided. That is, however, not
because it is “eastern” in origin, but because it is not pursued
for the right reason. Yoga is to be undertaken for the sake of
Truth itself, for the sake of what the Buddha termed “unshak-
able deliverance of heart.” To practise it, as many do, out
of curiosity, in search of new sensations, or in order to gain
psychic powers is a mistake which is punished with futility,
neurosis, or worse. None should seek initiation into the
mysteries from unworthy motives, or disaster will surely result.

In fact, though the particular dress in which it is presented

xvi THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

in the Gita is an Indian one, the Path itself is neither “eastern”
nor “western.” It belongs to no race and to no religion,
being that on which all true religions were originally based.
It is to make this clear that I have quoted so freely from other
mystical literature, and in particular from Plotinus and Hermes
Trismegistus. For the former I have used the translation of
Stephen McKenna , 1 2 3 and for the latter that of G. R. S. Mead.

The parallels adduced should be sufficient to show that the
Path is not a purely Oriental one having, as Jung would say,
no roots in a Western psyche, but is something universal, to
be found in all traditions, and fit to be trodden by anyone who
has the will to do so. If a man has a healthy mind, a worthy
aspiration, sincerity (including what is less common, intel-
lectual sincerity), courage, and tenacity of purpose he need
fear no serious danger on this Path. If a man approaches it
from the scientific or philosophic side that is all that need be
said. But if his approach is through some particular religion
he will have to be careful to discard any idea that his own
religion is a unique one and any clinging to authority in the
shape of inspired scriptures. Failure to do this will result in
delusions and blocking of further advance. He must, as the
Buddha said, be his own Light and his own refuge. The
only authority is within the Soul itself, and the would-be
disciple must be ready to test everything and abandon his
most cherished conceptions if they prove inadequate.

Superstition is a deadly foe and must be conquered at all
costs. As it says in The Precepts of the Gurus : a “ Reason
being in every action the best friend is not to be avoided.” *
While on the subject a few other aphorisms from the same
source are so relevant that they may as well be set down :

1 Published by the Medici Society.

2 Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrine , , translated from the Tibetan by
Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup* and edited by Dr Evans Wentz. Oxford
University Press.

3 But it is also necessary to avoid cheap ‘rationalism.’ It will not do to
regard as superstition anything that is not understood by contemporary
‘reason.’ It is by no means always easy in practice to decide whether some-
thing is superstition or not.

INTRODUCTION xvii

“One shottld acquire practical knowledge of the Path by
treading it and not be as are the multitude.

“ Weakness of fahh combined with strength of intellect are
apt to lead to the error of talkativeness.

“Strength of faith combined with weakness of intellect are
apt to lead to the error of narrow-minded dogmatism.

“Desire may be mistaken for faith.

“Attachment may be mistaken for benevolence and com-
passion.

“Sense perceptions may be mistaken for glimpses of Reality.

“A mere glimpse of Reality may be mistaken for complete
realisation.

“Charlatans may be mistaken for sages.

“A philosophy comprehensive enough to embrace the
whole of knowledge is indispensable.

“A system of meditation which will produce the power
of concentrating the mind on anything whatsoever is indis-
pensable.

“An art of living which will enable one to utilise each
activity (of body, speech and mind) as an aid on the Path is
indispensable.”

Those who seek after strange experiences, psychic powers,
or the sweet-sounding consolations of religion had far better
leave the whole thing alone or they will wreck their lives, and
perhaps those of others as well. The path of Truth is a hard
one, and the Inner Ruler will exact the last farthing of karmic
payment for dallying with error.

The reader is recommended to have a copy of the Gita by
him, and in order to facilitate references to the original the
verses referred to have been noted in the margin. Where the
interpretation seems to differ from generally accepted trans-
lations I can only say that the differences are not based on
ignorance of the standard versions, but are the results of
careful thought. A useful translation for the general reader
is that of Mrs Besant, and for those who know even a
little Sanskrit the edition by Mrs Besant and Bhagavan Das

xviii THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

(T.P.H.), which gives the text and a word-by-word trans-
lation as well as the general one, will be found very helpful
indeed. Another good translation is that* by W. D. P. Hill
(Oxford University Press), which also gives the text.

It is recommended that the Appendices should at least be
rapidly glanced through before commencing serious reading of
the actual book. Much explanatory matter that would have
interrupted the general flow has been given there. A glossary
of Sanskrit terms will also be found at the end of the book.

To him who reads with a view to treading the Path, however
inadequately here set forth, I would only add :

“Thine own consciousness, shining, void and inseparable
from the Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth, nor death,
and is the Immutable Light.”

PROLEGOMENA

THE GENERAL SETTING

Before starting to discuss the Gita itself it will be desirable
to say a few words about its setting — namely, the events
recorded in the Mahabharata which serve as the framework
of the Gita. I am quite aware that many Western scholars
consider that the Gita was not a part of the original Maha-
bharata, but, as most of them have yet to show any real
understanding of either, I do not propose to discuss their views
and will simply point out, with Telang, 1 that the Gita has
been introduced into its setting in a perfectly harmonious
manner, and, further, that a consideration of the events related
in the Mahabharata can shed considerable light upon the
inner meaning of the Gita.

For the sake of Western readers I will very briefly recount
those events.

The Divinely-born Arjuna, 3 with his four brothers, was
brought up with his cousins, the Kauravas, at the Court of
the latter’s father, Dhritarashtra, the king who, though legally
disqualified by his blindness, had seized and held the throne.
Not content with the seizing of the throne, the old king did
not even hold the balance evenly between his sons and their
cousins, the Pandavas, but constantly favoured the former.
Hostility soon developed between the two parties and, after a
brief attempt to divide the realm between them, the Pandavas
were defeated at dice by trickery and made to wander for
twelve long years in exile, followed by a thirteenth year in

1 See the introduction to his translation of the Gita in Sacred Books
of the East .

2 Arjuna’s putative father, Pandu, was disqualified from having children
by a curse, and so his wife, Kunti, bore the five Pandavas by five Gods,
of whom Indra, the chief, fathered Arjuna.

XX THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

€

which their very whereabouts had to remain unknown. At
tie conclusion of this period the well-meaning but weak king
found it impossible to persuade his headstrong and evil-
minded son, Duryodhana, to restore to the Pandavas their
share of the kingdom and, in spite of fruitless attempts to
bring about a reconciliation by Sanjaya, Dhritarashtra’s
charioteer, by Bhishma, his wise counsellor, and even by the
Lord Krishna Himself, war could not be averted, and the
rival hosts faced each other on the field of Kurukshetra. It
is at this point that the Gita commences.

Without going into the question as to whether all incidents
of the Mahabharata have a symbolic significance and whether
it is possible to trace a consistent symbolism all through the
vast epic, it must be clear to all those who have eyes that there
is an inner significance behind the events thus inadequately
summarised. There is no need to ask the question whether
the author of the Mahabharata had such a symbolism con-
sciously in his mind. Many, perhaps most, great works of
art are filled with symbolism that is often quite unplanned
by the conscious minds of their creators, and sometimes this
symbolism is truer and more profound from the fact of its
having descended from a region beyond the realm of conscious
thinking. It embodies not the head-knowledge but the
soul-knowledge of the artist. If it were not so, then we should
have to concur in Plato’s rejection of art as being the shadow
of a shadow.

Porphyry, the great Neoplatonist mystic, pointed out a
wealth of symbolism in the epics of Homer . 1 It is true that
most modem scholars reject all such interpretations as a mere
reading into the texts of meanings that were never intended
by the author; but such a view is entirely superficial and is
based on an utter ignorance of the nature of great art, which
is always symbolic, because it takes its birth in a realm whose
only utterance is in symbol. If this is true of such a poem
as tie Odyssey , far more is it true of the Mahabharata, a poem
1 It is not intended to claim truth for all Porphyry’s interpretations.

PROLEGOMENA: THE GENERAL SETTING xxi

in which all the culture, all the aspirations and all the traditions
of an entire race found expfession. Symbolism is, in fact,
like beauty itself: either you see it or you do not. And if it
is seen, then it is as irrelevant to inquire whether it was con-
sciously intended by the author as it is to ask whether the
beauty was consciously intended by him. It exists.

The skeleton interpretation that I shall indicate does not
base itself upon the authority of scriptural texts, nor does it
depend for its validity on anyone’s ability to fit every event
in the poem into the framework of this scheme. That may
or may not be possible, and in any case is outside the scope
of this work. Whatever value it may have for any reader will
depend entirely on the light that it may succeed in throwing
on the teachings of the Gita for him . 1

In the first place we must notice that, though not the eldest,
the chief of the Pandava brothers is Arjuna. He it was that
won Draupadi at the swayamvara , a and it was he alone that
she really loved, and he who was the hero of the greatest
exploits. Yudhisthira may excel in dharma and Bhima in
feats of strength, but it is on Arjuna’s heroic prowess that
the Pandavas depend, and it was Arjuna who went to Kailash
to get the magic weapons from Mahadeva Himself. It is
Arjuna, again, who is the special friend of Krishna, and the
latter confirms this view when, in the tenth chapter of the
Gita, he proclaims Arjuna and not Yudhisthira as the chief
of the Pandavas . 3 In the Srimad Bhdgaioata it is Arjuna
who goes with Krishna to the abode of the Purushottama and
is addressed by the latter as a second Krishna,* and, return-
ing to the Mahabharata, it is Arjuna who is seen in heaven
with Krishna, “those two foremost of all beings,” by
Yudhisthira on the latter’s arrival there.

1 I may also add that no claim is made that these thoughts are original.
Anyone who considers that they belong to him is welcome to take possession
of them.

8 A swayamvara was a sort of tournament at which a maiden of the
warrior caste used to choose her husband. In this case the princess became
the wife of all five brothers.

8 Gita, x, 37.

4 Ityadishtau bhagawatd tau krishnau parameshthind ,

xxii THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Arjuna and Krishna, the inseparable friends, are in fact
well known to represent Nara and Narayapa , the human soul
and the Divine Soul, the jtva and Atman . 1 They are the two
birds that are described in the Upanishad , a the two birds,
eternal friends, seated upon the same tree, the body, of whom
one, the human soul, eats the fruit, while the other, the Atman ,
is a silent witness. It is true that the terms Nara and Narayana
are explained by a reference to the story of a dual incarnation
of God in the form of two Rishis, Nara and Narayana :, who
performed tapasya and are believed to be still so doing, in
the Himalaya. But this story is itself symbolic. The word
Rishi means a seer, and in truth the only seer is the Atman.
“That which sees through the eye but whom the eye sees not;
that is the Atman.” So says the Upanishad , and this story
of the two Rishis is a symbol of the dual soul, human and
Divine, incarnated in one body. It is significant that the
very name of the place in which the two Rishis perform their
austerities is Badri, the name of a tree bearing sweet fruits,
thus bringing us back again to the Upanishadic birds who
are seated on a tree which likewise bears sweet fruits ( swadu
pippalam).

The significance of Arjuna and Krishna having thus been
indicated, we must next inquire into that of his brothers and
cousins. We shall see that, in the sixteenth chapter of the
Gita, Sri Krishna makes a division between two great tendencies
or movements in creation which He terms the Daivi, or bright,
and the Asurik, or dark. It is these two tendencies that are
symbolised by Arjuna’s brothers and by the hostile Kauravas
respectively. Detailed treatment of these forces will come
in its proper place ; 3 it will be sufficient here to observe that
the Asurik and Daivi creations, popularly identified with
vices and virtues respectively, in reality signify the “outgoing”
and the “ingoing” forces elsewhere called “pravritti” and
“ nivritti ',” die forces which tend to enmesh the soul deeper

1 See Appendix B. 3 Mundaka Upamshad, iii, 1, 1-3.

8 Chapter XVI.

PROLEGOMENA: THE GENERAL SETTING xxiii

and deeper in “matter” and those which help and accompany
it on its return journey to Spirit . 1 It is evident that the
popular identification of them with the vices and virtues is
but a rough approximation to their true meaning and one on
a much lower plane of thought than that of the Gita.

It should be further noted that the Kauravas and the
Pandavas are cousins. There is none of the ultimate dualism
that has marred so much of Christian thought, no God and
Devil standing as ultimate irreconcilables. The Daivi and
Asurik forces both spring from the same Supreme Source
and in the end both return to It.

It is not necessary to go into the question of the significance
of the individual Pandavas (except of course Arjuna, who
has already been dealt with) or Kauravas. The only other
figures we shall discuss are Dhritarashtra, the blind old king,
and Sanjaya, his charioteer. These two are of some importance,
as they figure directly in the Gita.

The teachings of the Gita are spoken by Krishna, who is
acting as the charioteer of Arjuna; they are overheard by
Sanjaya as the result of the blessing of Vyasa, the author of
the Scriptures, and who signifies the power of inspiration,
and they are repeated to Dhritarashtra. This is the frame-
work in which the teachings of the Gita are set. Who are these
persons, and what is the significance of the two charioteers?

Krishna, we have seen, is the Divine Soul who imparts the
life-giving Wisdom to the individual soul. The symbol of
the charioteer is one that occurs in the Upanishads and also
in the Dialogues of Plato. In the Upanishads the individual
soul is described as the Rider in the chariot of the body, while
“ buddhi ” a spiritual faculty that we shall have to discuss
later, is the charioteer. In the Gita, however, the use to
which the symbol is put is slightly different. True, the
individual soul in the form of Arjuna is still the rider in the
chariot, but the charioteer is, as we have seen, the Divine
Self in the person of Krishna.

1 See Appendix B.

xxiv THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

The difference between the Gita and the 15 Upanishad on
this point is more apparent than real. In the first place,
Krishna as charioteer stands for the Manifested Atman , the
great self ( Mahat Atmari), of which the buddhi is the purely
cognitive aspect . 1 In fact, though in earlier texts, such as
the Kathopanishad, the two are distinct, later writers fused
them into one. When it is further noted that the buddhi is
symbolised by the bright yellow robes in which Krishna is
always depicted, it will be seen that the difference between
the two views is very small indeed . 2

It should also be stated that the individual soul, or jiva,
here referred to is not an ultimate irreducible soul monad,
but is the Light of the one Atman reflected in the vehicle
( upadhi ) of manas, the higher mind . 3 This jiva is what is
referred to in the Gita as the dehi, or dweller in the body, the
ego which passes from life to life (sometimes termed jivatman).
It is also referred to in the Upanishads as the person “of the
size of the thumb,” dwelling in the heart. This is not a
piece of primitive superstition about homunculi souls, but
a symbol of the Atman manifested in an appropriate size to
fill the heart, considered as the seat of mind. Nowadays,
no doubt, we think of the brain as the special seat of min d,
but with the ancient peoples it was the heart, and moreover,
however close may be the connection between the ordinary
waking consciousness and the brain, it is a sheer fact that
when the true ego, or jiva, makes itself felt it is in the heart
(or at least within the breast) that it is perceived as an actual
experience.

This identification of the/fca with manas may sound strange
to those whose study of Indian thought has been based on the

1 See Appendix E.

. 2 In Maitri Upanishad ( 2 ), a later Upanishad than the Katha but contain-
ing many significant teachings, the Purusha , that is the Atman , is given as
the charioteer of the body.

. s See Shwetashwatara Upanishad > v, 8. The Light of the one Con-
sciousness shining distributively on the pure mental level produces the
multiplicity of individual souls. This will become clearer in the course
of the Gita.

PROLEGOMENA: THE GENERAL SETTING xxv

later and developed philosophical system. In the Rig-Veda
the usual term for the individual soul is memos, while Atman
is used for an impersonal breath, which is indeed the root-
meaning of the word. There is a law, which may be termed
the law of the degradation of spiritual concepts, by which terms
originally used by Seers to express levels of supernormal
spiritual experience become in the hands of later and purely
scholastic exponents terms for elements in purely normal
mental life. This law may be seen operating in most mystical
systems, and its result is that further terms have to be invented
or brought into currency from time to time to denote the higher
levels . 1 It is by this process that the word manas ceased to
signify the individual soul and became merely a name for the
faculty of discursive thought.

Dhritarashtra, on the other hand, represents the empirical
ego, the lower and transient personality which, blinded by
egoism and foolish infatuation, wields a nominal sway over the
kingdom of the body which it has unjustly seized, the word
Dhritarashtra meaning one who has seized the kingdom.
Although he arrogates to himself the title of King, yet his rule
over the kingdom is merely nominal, for the real power lies
with his Asurik sons, just as the human personality which so
proudly says “I” is the sport of a continual succession of
involuntary desires and passions which are the real rulers
of the body it calls its own.

Sanjaya, the charioteer and adviser of the blind king, is the
link between the higher and lower m inds. The mind has a
dual status in Hindu philosophy. “The mind is said to be
twofold, the pure and the impure: impure by union with desire,
and pure, completely free from desire .” 2 The impure mind
is Dhritarashtra, the empirical ego controlled by desire

1 Instances of this are the turiyatita (beyond turiyd) state of the Yoga-
vasishtha and the whole set of suddha tattwas in the Kashmir Saiva system.
If told that the union with the manas is an important step, perhaps the
most important single step in the spiritual ascent, many would reply:
“Unite with manas} Why, I do that every time I have a thought or even
correlate my sense impressions!”

2 Maitri Upanishad > vi, 34.

xxvi THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

€

(Duryodhana), while the pure mind is Arjuna, the individual
soul. Sanjaya is thus the link between the two.

It is not easy to give a clear account of the relation between
these two minds, or better, perhaps, these two aspects of the
mind. The higher mind, though individualised, is pure and
detached, and sees in its own clear light, while the lower mind
is stained by its union with the principle of desire. Failure to
understand this is at the root of those modem views which
plausibly urge that the mind is but the slave of the hidden tides,
quiet or tempestuous, of the so-called “unconscious.” Of the
lower mind (which is what most men know as their minds) this
is only too true, but the higher stands firm in its own being
and is a rock of refuge in the surging waves of desire. It is of
this that Plotinus has written:

“Even our human soul has not sunk entire; something of it
is continuously in the Intellectual Realm, though if that part
(i.e. the lower manas) which is in the sphere of sense be mastered
here and troubled it keeps us blind to what the upper phase
holds in contemplation. . . . But there is always the other
(the higher manas), that which finds no savour in passing
pleasure, but holds its own even way.” 1

It is here that Sanjaya comes in as the link between the two.
Plotinus speaks of the lower being loosed from its shackles and
able to soar only when “it makes its memories a the starting-
point for the vision of essential Being.” The link should not
be conceived as anything material, but as the purely mental
connection between the two aspects of what is in essence one.
When the lower thinks of the higher, the latter’s knowledge
shines upon the former and is manifest in the form of what
Plotinus, following Plato, termed “memories,” but what is
perhaps more clearly described as perception of value — truth,
beauty, or goodness. This is the root of what is usually termed
conscience, though it must be carefully distinguished from the

1 Plotinus, Enneadsy iv, 8, 7.

a Memories in the Platonic sense of course : memories of what the
soul (manas) knew and knows on its own level, not mere memories of life
experience down here. Cf. Gita, xviii, 76, 77.

PROLEGOMENA: THE GENERAL SETTING xxvii

voices of social, fhmily, and racial prejudices which are often
dignified by that name. In some teachings it is termed
antahkaraiia, “inward turning,” though usually in Hindu
philosophy that term is used, as meaning inner organ, for the
various mental faculties taken as a whole. It is the drawbridge
of the inner fortress, the gateway leading to immortality, the
mediator through which the Voice of the Higher is heard by
the lower.

Thus Safijaya, though anchored in service to Dhritarashtra,
yet reaches out to a faith in Krishna, and constantly counsels
his master to abandon his weak egoism and submit himself
to the latter. It is thus Safijaya who, when aided by the
inspiration derived from Vyasa, is able to “overhear” the
dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna and so to form a link
between the inner knowledge of the soul and the dark ignorance
of the self-centred personality.

It may also be said that there is a correspondence between
these four characters and the four states of consciousness taught
by Hindu philosophy, the jagrat, swapna , sushupti and tuny a ,
usually translated, more by way of analogy than of identity,
as the waking, dreaming, deep sleep and ecstatic states . 1 This
correspondence, however, involves a different reading of the
symbols and would only confuse the issue here.

We are now in a position to return to the outline sketch of
the events that have led up to the delivery of the Gita. The
Soul, leaving behind its Divine ancestry, became attached to a
personality and lives amidst the conflicting forces that make up
this world. The conflict, at first latent, as the Daivi and
Asurik forces are not clearly differentiated, gradually increases
in strength. Attempts at partition of their respective spheres
of influence having failed, as indeed they must fail since all is
one unity, and action and reaction must necessarily take place,
the Soul and its associates are deceived by the illusions of the
Asurik , or downward-tending forces, and are condemned to

1 See Appendix C. Transcendent perhaps renders the meaning better
than ecstatic* Literally the term tuny a simply means “the Fourth.”

xxviii THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

long wanderings in the wilderness. Duriifg this period, a
period which in reality extends through long ages, the Soul
wanders about from birth to birth performing actions and
r eapin g their fruits. Reduced to powerlessness as it is, it yet
slowly gathers wisdom as a result of its manifold experiences,
and though exposed to countless hardships and perils, it is yet
saved from utter disaster by the unseen power of its Lord,
the Divine Soul. Experience, wisdom, and also powers are
gained, for it is during this period that Arjuna gains his magical
weapons that are later to be of such immense value to him.
The Asurik forces rule the world unchecked and at length the
thirteenth year arrives, the year of “ajnata vasa,” in which
the very existence of the Soul and its brothers has to remain
unknown.

It is the darkest hour, the hour before the dawn, and the Soul,
reduced to performing the tasks of a servant, is lost to sight
altogether. The forces of materialism seem triumphant and
the very existence of the Soul becomes a matter of doubt, or
even denial.

But not for ever can the Soul be thus buried in darkness.
The allotted period draws to its close, and the Soul emerges
from its obscurity with all its flashing powers. Significantly
enough, the first event is a battle in defence of the right, the
battle fought on behalf of King Virata, in which the Soul,
though still disguised, displays its prowess and puts to flight
the powers of the Dark. So decisive, indeed, is the Soul’s
intervention that none can stand against it. All are aware of
the rising star, and all foresee the terrible conflict that must
now occur.

But the Soul seeks no autocratic power for itself. It is for
its brothers, the dispossessed Bright Powers ( Daivi Sarga ),
that it is prepared to fight, and even for them it claims no
undivided sway. Knowing, as it does, that the Asurik forces
are as much a part of die cosmic play as are the Daivi ones, it
proposes only a just division of the kingdom, but this the
Powers of the Dark will not grant.

PROLEGOMENA: THE GENERAL SETTING xxix

Bhishma ancf Drona, the aged warrior counsellors, symbols
of blind faith and of established Law and Order and ancient
Tradition, foreseeing the disastrous conflict, plead for peace
and reconciliation, as does Sanjaya, the conscience. Sri
Krishna himself sets forth in persuasive words the advantages
of harmonious peace, but all is of no avail. Duryodhana
refuses to listen, and the old king professes himself powerless
to control his headstrong sons. War is inevitable. The con-
flict of the Daivi and the Asurik can no longer be averted, and
the rival hosts face each other on the field of Kurukshetra. It
is at this fateful moment that the Gita commences. The
opposing hosts are drawn up in battle array, and the long-
expected conflict is about to commence.

Dhritarashtra said: “In the Holy Field of Kurukshetra what
did they do, O Sanjaya, my sons and the Pandavas, gathered
together eager for battle?”

CHAPTER I

THE YOGA OF THE DEJECTION OF ARJUNA

Too many readers pass by the first chapter of the Gita
hurriedly as of no great importance, considering it a mere
introduction to which no special significance need be attached.

This, however, is a mistake. It is no doubt true that it is an
introductory chapter, but introductory to what? Not merely
to an historical situation or to a body of philosophic teachings
that have been embedded in the epic poem, but to the Yoga
itself, and, if properly understood, it has a great significance
for us . 1 Like all the other chapters, it is termed a yoga, and
is entitled “Arjuna Vishada Yoga ” — the Yoga of the Dejection
of Arjuna.

We have seen that the Gita commences at the point where
the Soul, like one awakening from sleep, has emerged from the
obscurity in which it lay buried. Arjuna, as the individual
Soul, finds himself on the battlefield of Kurukshetra faced by v «ses
the necessity of a terrible conflict in which all his friends, 24 ' 2 ‘
relatives and former teachers are ranged against him, “eager
for battle.” On this field, significantly enough termed “dhar-
makshetra,” the field of dharma or duty, the opposing forces of
pravritti and nivxitti stand face to face and, from a position to
which it has been guided by the Divine Krishna, the Soul,
stationed between the rival armies, surveys the situation.

As long as the Soul remains hidden in the inner worlds,
so long the conflict does not come to a head, and the indivi-
dual passes from one experience to another in an apparently

1 It is by no means intended to suggest that all the kings and warriors
mentioned in this chapter have symbolic significance as individuals. Attempts
to interpret them have been made* but such as I have seen bear an artificial
stamp.

I

2 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

/*•

unordered fashion, as described in the introductory section.
But this cann ot last for ever, and after the intoxication of the
awakening, symbolised by the triumphant battle fought on
behalf of King Virata, has passed off, the Soul finds itself in a
situation which may well inspire dejection.

Verse 14 . It was easy to sound the war conches in defiance and to feel
the thrill of anticipated battle with the Asurik forces of pravritti.
But, suddenly, in a flash of insight which comes while the Soul
is poised inactive between the two opposing tendencies, Arjuna
realises for the first time all that is involved in the struggle.
Relations, friends of his childhood and revered teachers are
also entangled amongst his enemies, and he realises that his own
heart’s blood is, as it were, arrayed against him. During the
long ages of slumber the Soul has contracted all sorts of relation-
ships and has submitted to the guidance of various ideals and
traditions, and only now is it realised that all these relationships
must be destroyed and all these ideals, ideals that have often
seemed the very goal of life, must be ruthlessly sacrificed on
the battlefield, since now they are seen to be leagued with the
outgoing forces of pravritti and to be opposing the destined
triumph of the Soul.

Up till now the individual has been content to live within
the narrow circle of race and family, and bounded by the ties
of kinship he has felt that it was enough if he fulfilled the duties
that he owed to his society and nation, if he attempted to live
according to the ideals of his gurus , the religious and ethical
systems in which, by birth, he found himself. But societies
and races are all temporary, while the Soul is eternal and, in the
end, can rest on no support but Itself. The simple creed of
“my country, right or wrong” lies in ruins, destroyed by con-
flicting loyalties, and the ideals which had uplifted him in
earlier days are powerless to guide him any longer, as they are
seen to.be mere mental constructions, inadequate to the needs
of the Soul.

Nor is the conflict to which the Soul is called merely one
with outer ties, established institutions and recognised standards

THE YOGA OF THE DEJECTION OF ARJUNA 3

of conduct and belief. In the inner world, too, he is faced
with the same situation. Arrayed against him he finds the
army of his desires. Not merely those desires that are con-
ventionally considered “evil” but many others too, the desire
for “harmless” enjoyment, the desire to shine in society
surrounded by friends, and the desire to lead a secure and
comfortable life. All these and many more have taken the
field against the Soul under the leadership of the various ideals
that have been harnessed to their service. The call of the blood,
the prestige of habit and established custom, the ideologies
which had sufficed in the past are all arrayed against him, and
perhaps the most bitter fact of all is the knowledge that the
glittering ideals of patriotism, of family affection and of devotion
to his religion have also “eaten the food of the Kauravas ,” 1 and,
though they served as guides and teachers in the past, are, like
Bhishma and Drona, in arms against the Soul and must be
slain.

This is the situation with which every aspirant is faced and
through which, sooner or later, all have to pass. Small wonder
is it that Arjuna is overcome with utter dejection and that his verses
bow slips from his nerveless hand as he sinks down overcome 2 9“3°-
by ap intolerable sadness, a sadness that is the inevitable
experience of those who seek the Path. What will be the worth
of victory if “those for whose sake we desire kingdom, enjoy-
ments and pleasures” must first lie dead on the field? If all Verses
desire is renounced, will not the whole of life become an empty 32-35 '
waste, a vast desert in the midst of which the victorious Soul
will sit enthroned in desolation, exercising a vain and empty
rule? For what purpose are we called to such a sacrifice and,
in the end, how shall we benefit by it? “Better to eat beggars’
crusts in the world than to partake of such blood-besprinkled
feasts.” * Better, that is, to enjoy what simple enjoyments

1 Bhishma explained his blind acquiescence in the injustice done to
Draupadi in the Kaurava Court to his having for long eaten the Kaurava
food. In other words, the power of faith had long been harnessed to
ancient traditions now degenerated into superstition and so become forces
of Darkness.

a Gita, ii, 5.

4 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

can be had than to set out on this perilous path, a path to an
as yet quite inconceivable Goal, and of which the only certain
thing is that it leads over the dead bodies of all that we hold
dear in life.

Moreover, a further doubt arises in the heart. “In the
destruction of the family the immemorial traditions perish and
in the perishing of traditions lawlessness overcomes the whole
co mmuni ty.” Will not the destruction of all these desires —
and, above all, of these ideals — cause great confusion in the
world? Society depends on the existence of the normal
desires of its members and is bound up with the one-sidednesses
of current ideologies. Can it be right to disturb in the name
of the Soul’s progress to an unknown Goal an equilibrium which
has at least stood the test of time? Will not the aspirant, by
his renunciation of desire, unfit himself to participate in the
everyday life of the world, to share in the joys and sorrows of
his fellow-beings, and by his shattering of the ideals enshrined
in ancient traditions will he not bring chaos into the world?

“. . . Wilt thou dare

Put by our sacred books, dethrone our Gods,

Unpeople all the temples, shaking down

That law which feeds the priests and props the realms?” 1

Such, at least, are the doubts which present themselves in
the heart, some of them well founded, others ill, but all alike
having their real though unacknowledged source in the feeling
of gloom which invades the heart at the prospect of a life in
which all desire for self will have to be renounced and utterly
slain.

Nor, at this stage, is the darkness lit by any ray of light, and
although the Divine Teacher is standing beside the Soul not
yet has His Voice been heard. Brought by its past evolution to
the field of conflict, poised, as it were, upon the very edge of
battle, the Soul loses heart and sinks back terrified at the
desolate outlook, an outlook in which victory seems as cheerless
as defeat.

1 Light of Asia s iv.

THE YOGA OF THE DEJECTION OF ARJUNA 5

The real source of this desolation is, as has been said, the
prospect of a life in which all desire and ambition will be dead.
We are so used to a liif in which all action has its roots in desire
that we can conceive no other, and sadly ask what would be the
value of such existence. Not yet has the Soul learnt that,
having Krishna, it has all; that it is not for their own sakes
that parents, wives and children are dear, “but for the sake
of the Atman” 1

Nevertheless, this experience of the “ vishada ,” or sorrow, is
a very necessary one, as we may see from the fact that the
Buddha, too, as the first of His four Aryan Truths, set forth in
eloquent words the essential sorrow of life.

The Voice of Krishna can be heard only in silence, and as
long as the heart is filled with the clamour of desire the silver
tones of the Voice cannot be heard. It is only when the outer
world becomes utterly dark that the Ray of the Divine Star can
be seen by us, for, although It shines eternally, yet it is only
when the glaring sunlight of so-called life is eclipsed that we
can at first perceive It.

Later, that Star will shine with such a Light that “if the
splendour of a thousand suns were to blaze out together in the
sky, that might resemble the glory of that Mahatma,” 2 and
not all earth’s tumult will be able to deafen us to the majestic
rhythm of that Voice, that Voice that reverberates throughout
the Eternities as the tides of Being thunder upon the beaches
of the worlds.

But the time for those glories is not yet. At first the Light
is but a dim Star twinkling faintly within and the Voice is but
the sound . of a nightingale “chanting a song of parting to its
mate.” * Therefore it is that, before the bright Path of the
Sun can be trodden, the aspirant must enter the valley of gloom,
must close his eyes and ears to the light and laughter of life,
and must realise in sorrow that all that he is and all that he has

1 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, ii 3 4.

2 Gita* xi* 12.

8 Voice of the Silence .

6 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

is nothing, before he can see and know in joy that within his
heart is the All.

Verse 47. “ Cas tin g away his bow and arrows, ^rjuna sank down on

the chariot, his mind overborne by grief,” and thus, in dejection
and sorrow, closes the first chapter of the Gita and the first
stage of the Path.

CHAPTER II

THE YOGA OF THE DISCRIMINATIVE WISDOM

“If Emancipation means dissociation from all objects of
pleasurable enjoyment for what reason would men cherish a
desire for action? What do we gain by knowledge and what
lose by ignorance?” These words of King Janaka to the
Sankhyan teacher Panchashikha may serve as an introduction
to the present chapter as they well describe the mood of
Arjuna as the discourse opens.

Surrounded by desolation on all sides, the Soul has no
alternative but to turn within Itself and seek there the Divine
Teacher. Wherever else it looks it sees nothing but bitter Verses
emptiness, and even the appeal to a manly fortitude fails of 2j 3 '
its effect, for when all one’s world is in ruins, manliness seems
a mere posturing in the void. 1 In utter despair the Soul turns
within to the Divine Krishna and, weighed down by wretched-
ness ( karpanyadosha ), a wretchedness in which self-pity plays Verse 7.
a prominent part, cries out: “I am Thy disciple; teach me,

I am Thy suppliant.”

But not yet is the Soul really ready to abandon itself at the Verse 9.
feet of the Teacher. True self-giving will only be possible
later, for we see that there at the very feet of the Teacher to
whom he has just proclaimed his submission Arjuna refuses
to abandon his dejection, and cries out bitterly, “na yotsya ,”

I will not fight.

Profoundly significant are these words, for they express the
very fault we are always committing. The disciple appeals

1 Compare Bertrand Russell’s Free Man's Worship . His appeal for a
Promethean defiance of the universe “based on the firm rock of unyielding
despair,” however thrilling it may be to the armchair agnostic, will scarcely
nerve anyone who is actually in the abyss, and for all Russell’s sincerity
his glowing rhetoric rings false.

7

8 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

for t eaching to the Guru, either to the Divine s Lord within or
to His embodiment in human form, and professes his willing-
ness to serve Him utterly. But, spoken or unspoken, there
always remains a reservation: “Lord, I am Thine and will do
Thy bidding, but — ask not of me one thing, for that I cannot
do. I will not fight!” This is why the appeal to the Teacher
seems so often to bring no result and why many lose faith in
His presence, feeling that, were He really there, they would
assuredly hear His Voice.

But the impossible is not demanded and, slowly, if only there
is patient perseverance, a new and Divine knowledge is felt
obscurely stealing into the Soul and lighting up dimly the
darkness within. For the true Knowledge is to be found
within the Self; that which is merely derived from books or
hearsay is no real knowledge. Outer teaching may be effective
in helping to give clear expression to what is at first only dimly
intuited, but it can form no substitute for the latter, and the
work of any real Teacher is only to bring to birth that which
already exists within, as has been well expressed by Browning
in his poem, Paracelsus :

“Truth lies within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate’er you may believe.

There is an inmost centre in us all
Where Truth abides in fullness; and to know
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,

Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without.”

The first stage in the manifestation of this inner knowledge
comes in the form of a perception that within the self is
That which is immortal. This perception is of fun dam ental
importance, because without it the spiritual life can find no
lasting basis. Personal survival is not in question here, but
unless the core of man’s being is rooted in something immortal
there can be no ultimate value in his life, since in the end all
will be swallowed up in universal death.

“That man is the product of causes which had no prevision
of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth.

THE YOGA OF THE DISCRIMINATIVE WISDOM 9

his hopes ana fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the
outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no
heroism, no intensity ^of thought or feeling, can preserve an
individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the
ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday
brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the
vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of
Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the
debris of a universe in ruins — all these things, if not quite
beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy
which rejects them can hope to stand.” 1
Russell’s call for the black hangings of tragedy is, however,
not needed. Even at this early stage a dim perception of the
Immortal rises up within the heart. At first this perception
is likely to be clothed in the somewhat crude theory of an Verse 13
unchanging soul-entity dwelling within the body. Time,
however, will bring clarification, and in the meanwhile the
crudity of the theory should not be allowed to blind us to the
essential truth that it enshrines — namely, that within us is
something that is Eternal.

We must not expect at this stage the clear vision that will
come in due time, but, even now, the disciple should be able to
realise that the Dweller within is something separate from the Verse 14
matter in which he dwells. The contacts of sense will come
and go, but the disciple will feel that they are not himself,
but things that happen to him, and he must set himself to
“endure them bravely.”

“T hing s themselves touch not the soul, not in the least
degree. . . . Let the part of thy soul which leads and governs
be undisturbed by the movements in the flesh whether of
pleasure or of pain; and let it not unite with them, but let it
circumscribe itself and limit those effects to those parts.” 2
Only he who thus resolutely attempts to withdraw himself Verse 15
from the life of the senses is worthy to realise his immortality,

1 Bertrand Russell* A Free Man’s Worship .

a Marcus Aurelius* Meditations * v* 19* 2 6.

10 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

and to him, as he struggles, will come a percepfion that “this
too too solid” world of names and forms is but a passing
p hant om show which veils from sight thp true and unchanging
/erse 16. Eternal Reality which is for ever unmanifest. “The Unreal
/ hath no being; the Real never ceaseth to be.” An echo of
the same truth is found in Shelley’s beautiful lines:

“The One remains, the Many change and pass;

Heaven’s light for ever shines. Earth’s shadows fly.

Life like a dome of many-coloured glass
Stains the white radiance of Eternity.”

With this perception comes a realisation that this Unchanging
One, the Unmanifest in which all beings have their true selves,
is indestructible. “Weapons cannot cleave It nor fire bum It,
Verses nor can any compass the destruction of that Imperishable One.”

I 7 - 2 5- Just as the all-pervading light of day is not destroyed with the
perishing of the material forms in which it is reflected, but is
either reflected in the new forms which have taken their place
or remains in its own unmanifested nature, so the Unchanging
One passes from one form to another, as a man changes a
worn-out garment, and, though invisible, remains for ever even
though the whole world perish.

This is no piece of theological dogma to be taken as an
article of blind belief. The Gita is not concerned with beliefs
but with knowledge, and the above is a truth that becomes
dear to the disdple even at this stage, and a calm descends
upon the Soul as it realises that neither can one slay nor is any
slain. Forms and personalities come and go inevitably, but
That which lies behind them all can neither come nor go for
It for ever IS.

Moreover, since all forms are the same in kind, whether they
be forms of flesh and blood or forms of conduct and belief, the
Verses Soul learns not to grieve over the passing away of familiar

27j 28 . social forms and cherished religious creeds, for it sees that the

Reality behind them all, the Reality which gave birth to them,
is the same for ever, and neither comes into being at birth
of a new religion nor perishes with its decay. From the

THE YOGA OF THE DISCRIMINATIVE WISDOM n

Unmanifest they take their rise, on the Unmanifest they float
and into that Unmanifest they sink again. “What room then
for lamentation,” since all form is transient and must pass away,
while all that is Real is eternal and perishes not throughout
the ages.

Therefore, having perceived, if only dimly, that the Mar- Verses
vellous One is also the Dweller in the bodies of all, the Soul is 29-36 ‘
exhorted to cease from vain lamentations over the disappearance
of what is transitory by nature and to stand up and fight,
fulfilling the duties that lie before it.

Should the disciple be worsted in the fight even then he will
enjoy the fruits of heroic endeavour in the shape of better Verse 37-
opportunities in the future , 1 while, if he is victorious, his will
be the earth, for he is master of all manifested being. No
longer a “procession of fate,” as Hermes graphically puts it,
but a king, throned in the Sunlight, ruling all that is.

This knowledge is what is referred to in the Gita as the
wisdom of the Sankhya, but it should not be confused with the
brilliant but purely scholastic version that is to be found in
the much later Sankhya Karika. Partial accounts of the older
Sankhya are to be found in the Shanti Parva of the Maha-
pftdrata, and suffice to make it clear that, while the later system
was a frank dualism, the original teaching was monistic. The
latter set out to explain the world as an evolution in a graded
series of manifestations proceeding from one eternal Reality,
referred to as “That,” or the Avyakta, the Unmanifested.

The duality between prakriti and purusha that forms the centre
of the later system is here transcended, since both are but
aspects of the avyakta and are ultimately absorbed in It . 2

1 Compare The Voice of the Silerice : “For either he shall win or shall
fall . . . and if he falls, e’en then" he does not fall in vain; the enemies
he slew in the last battle will not return to life in the next birth that will
be his.”

2 See the teaching of Panchashikha, a pupil of Kapila and a traditional
teacher of the early Sankhya, given in Shanti Parva , chapter 219. The
soul (. Kshetrajha ) is said to “rest upon the mind” (c/. what was said in
the introduction as to the Mind’s (pumas) being the higher ego) and to
obtain emancipation or absorption into the Unmanifest Reality by complete
renunciation of all that is manifest.

For other early accounts see Shanti Parva , chapters 31 1 and 312; also

12 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Thus we see that essentially the Sankhyd' was a body of
teaching designed to give a coherent intellectual expression to
the intuition of the Unchanging Onejhat arises at the proper
time in the soul of the disciple when stimulated into activity
by the words of the Teacher.

It is, as Shankara rightly maintains, a system of jnana yoga ,
of yoga by knowledge, and, like all such partial systems, it
suffers from a certain one-sidedness that Krishna makes it
his business to correct. At the time when the Gita was spoken
(as indeed now) there were several such yogas in existence,
and we shall find that the first six chapters of the Gita (or
rather chapters 2 to 6 ) contain expositions of the Path accord-
ing to their various teachings, and also corrections of their
deficiencies.

■ In this chapter we are taken along the path of the Sankhyan
knowledge, because the first cry of the Soul when it awakens
to a dim perception of the Eternal is for a coherent scheme of
principles by which it may explain to itself its new knowledge.
But there is a danger too in the demand for a detailed explana-
tion, a danger that the original intuitive perception may be
swamped by the clear-cut intellectual expression, a danger too
that mere knowledge, divorced from the love and activity that
are the other aspects of the Path, may be considered as the
whole.

Many must have had the experience of seeing the flashing
intuitions of the One Atman which come from a reading of the
Upanishads fade and grow pale as the reader seeks to fix them
by the help of even such a writer as Shankara, who made those
intuitions the very corner-stones of his philosophy. The Soul
flees just at the very moment when we seem to hold its gl eaming
splendour in our hands and all we are left with is one more dead
butterfly to add to our mouldering collection.

Therefore the disciple has ever to keep in mind the fact that
the clear intellectual grasp that he craves for, and may to some

Caraka’s account quoted in Das Gupta’s History of Indian Philosophy,

P. 213 .

THE YOGA Of THE DISCRIMINATIVE WISDOM 13

/'extent gain by the study of the “Sankhyan wisdom,” is but a
substitute, a symbol of the true knowledge which alone can
bear the Soul upward oH swift and flashing wings.

It is here that the one-sidedness of the pure Sankhya comes
in. In proportion as the inner vision fades, the disciple
endeavours to recapture its fleeing spirit and to galvanise it
into life once more by a violent effort. Separatin g himself
more and more from the world of action and emotion, he
withdraws into a realm of abstractions and, bendin g upon them
the whole power of his psychic energy, he often succeeds in
imparting a kind of life to them at the cost of an ever sterner
and more forcible warping of his nature. This “life,” however,
shows by its very lack of balance that it is not the authentic life
of the Soul. Only in perfect poise and harmony can the Soul
blossom and be developed, and not by any such forced and
unnatural straining will the disciple reach the true Goal.
Origen’s act of self-castration did not enable him to attain that
state that Hindu tradition terms “brahmacharya” and rigid
isolation in a mountain cave will not bring about that inner
detachment from the passing show of things which is the soil
in which alone the flower of true Wisdom can grow.

The battle of life must be won and not run away from,- and
so, after a repetition of the injunction to gird himself foisting
'frayi the disciple is instructed in the all-important buddhi yo\ jvV
which is necessary to supplement the static analytic technique.'" 3
the pure Sankhya. The latter attempts to gain its goal of pure
emancipation (Kaivalya) by a forced isolation from the whole
of the manifested universe which, even if at all practicable,
can only result in a strained and unnatural attainment. The
,*£ue Path aims at a detachment from the lower manifestations
by a progressive union with the higher, and is as different from ;
the former method as is the natural blooming of a flower from
tie forced opening of the bud.

. What is therefore emphasised is the buddhi yoga , the union
with the buddhi as a preli minary step to the utterly transcendent ;
state of the goal. The manas, or mind, must cease to be, as

14 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAV4T GITA

heretofore, united to the senses, but must become buddhi-
yukta , or united to that which is higher than itself, if the Path
is to be really trodden and not merely talked about. For by
climbing the ladder there is none of that loss of effort which is
in store for him who attempts to leap in one bound to the roof
of the world. Nor is there any transgression of the law that
all that lives is one . 1 And at this point it is necessary to say
a few words about the nature of buddhi.

Nowhere does the purely intellectual nature of the later
Sjdnkhya come out more clearly than in its account of the
mature of buddhi, which it treats as simply one of the intellectual
faculties, the faculty by which the mind comes to a decision
after a period of doubt and hesitation. True it is that the
buddhi is the faculty that gives determined knowledge ( 'nischay -
atmikd buddhi ), but the knowledge that it gives is no mere
collection of intellectual propositions, but a living knowledge,
better styled intuition, save that it has none of the sporadic
flashings that we associate with that term, but, on its own level,
burns with a steady radiance. In the Kathopanishad, buddhi
is termed the jhana dtman, and it is at once the knowledge of
the Atman and the faculty by which that knowledge is attained,
^symbolically it is the yellow cloth that is worn by Krishna, and
w £t»>articular significance for the disciple lies in the fact that it •

beyond the limitations of individuality,
f? On the level of the manas the Light of the One Atman is split
up into a number of separate individualities, each standing on
its own uniqueness. The buddhi, however, is non-individual,
being the same for all.

This certainty-giving buddhi ( Vyavasay atmikd buddhi),
which is one in all, is contrasted with the wavering and un-
certain thoughts 2 of the ordinary man. It is the source of all

1 The all-renouncing flight of the soul to the Unmanifest is in some
sense a transgression of this law and it is for this reason that the Mahayana
stigmatises the Pratyeka Buddhas (treaders of that Path) as spiritually
selfish.

2 The word buddhi in addition to being used of the super-mental level
is also, as it were by courtesy and common usage, applied to ordinary
mental knowledge. Hence the plural in the second half of the verse.

THE YOGAvOF THE DISCRIMINATIVE WISDOM 1 5

real knowledge and, for him who can attain to it, it supersedes
all the scriptures of the orthodox. Not that the latter have no
value at all. Veiling iis rites and ceremonies the eternal Truths
behind, they serve as guides to the great mass of men and
furnish checks upon the grosser forms of desire; but they can
do litde for the serious aspirant for knowledge. “The Vedas
deal with the three gunas,” 1 says the Gita, while the disciple,
steadfast in sattva alone, must reach out to what is beyond.
The reason for their failure is that they depend on hope and
fear (manifestations of rajas and tamas respectively), whereas
only the sdttvik devotion to Truth for its own sake can serve
for him who seeks to tread this Path. The orthodox may
thunder forth their dogmatic assurances, but all their books
are, literally, as useful to the enlightened disciple (vijanata—
possessed of vijhana or buddht) as “a tank in a place overflowing
with water on all sides.” Hence the extreme importance of
the buddht yoga, for this union, when achieved, brings about a
liberation from “the knots of the heart,” the fetters which had
bound the Soul within the prison of separate individuality.
Only when this union with the super-individual buddht has
been achieved will it be possible for the Soul to “escape from
the tangle of delusions” and to “stand immovable,” unshaken
alike Ijy the pleasures and pains of life and by the conflicting
and partial views of reality that are all that can be achieved by
the unaided manas.

Only he who is thus established in the prajha (a synonym for
buddht ) will be able to make the final leap to the anamayam
padam , the Sorrowless State, with any hope of success, and,
in order to attain this union with the buddht , the method
recommended is skill in action (karmasu kcmhdlam ), the main-
tenance of a balanced attitude, the same in failure as in success.
The disciple is to keep his mind perfectly indifferent to the
results of his actions while yet, in a spirit of utter detachment,

1 Sattva , rajas and tama$> the three gunas 3 or characteristics of Mula-
prakriti, and so of all forms derived therefrom. Though not very easily
translated, they may be rendered as harmonious purity, passionate activity
and dark inertia respectively. See Chapter XIV.

16 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT ^GITA

performing such acts as are his duty. Acting in this way
the disciple’s actions will be guided by the impersonal know-
ledge of the buddhi and he will then transcend the limits of
selfish good and evil.

This is the method of the karma yoga, whose theoretical
basis will be gone into in the next chapter, of which it forms
the specific subject. In this context it is enough to point out
that its purpose is to gain control of the desire-prompted im-
pulses of the senses and to harmonise the mind so as to render
it possible for the latter to unite with the buddhi and enable
the Divine knowledge to blossom forth. It is only through
the buddhi that this knowledge can shine freely; below that
level it is obstructed and broken up by the play of the separated
individualities, and it is only when they are united with what is
beyond them that the unifying Divine Wisdom can become
manifest and the fetters of duality begin to fall away.

It is easy to say “unite the mind with the buddhi” but
usually such words have but little meaning for the disciple,
since he has as yet had no experience of the buddhi and knows
not what it really is. Moreover, the mind remains obstinately
separate and will not suffer itself to be united with anything.
Hence the supreme importance of supplementing the theoretic
technique of the Sdnkhya by a practice designed to harmonise
and control the mind in action. In reply to Arjuna’s question
about the characteristics of the man who has united with the
Verses buddhi, Sri Krishna describes how the disciple, uniting himself
56 ~ 58 ' with the felt Reality within, must detach himself from the
desire-life of the senses as a tortoise withdraws its limbs from
Verse 59. contact with the outer world. Mere withdrawal is, however,
not enough, for though the sense objects lose their power over
the man who habitually practises restraint, yet the desire for
them remains in his heart and dies only when something higher
than the sense life is actually seen.

In the last resort, nothing but the vision of the Atman itself
can cause the utter dying-out of desire, and therefore the

THE YOGA QF THE DISCRIMINATIVE WISDOM 17

restraint but to centre his gaze upon the Atman within, unseen
though yet it be. “Silence thy thoughts and fix thy whole
attention on thy Master, whom yet thou dost not see, but
whom thou feelest.” 1 The slightest wavering, the slightest
turning back in thought to that sense world on which the
disciple has turned his back, will energise anew the desires
which he is striving to abandon, and as the tension increases
in his desire-nature (what some psychologists term the un- Verses
conscious) they will burst out in a great flash of anger utterly 62 ~ 63 '
devastating to his spiritual progress, shattering his inner
perception and causing a loss of those “memories” a by which
he hoped to mount.

It is not that the sense life is to be negated or outwardly
discontinued, as impracticably taught by some Sankhyas. It
is an inner withdrawal that is to be practised, a withdrawal to
higher levels that will in itself bring that outer harmonisation
which is essential if the buddhi is to be attained. In the old
symbol of the chariot, the horses of the senses are to be held
back ( nigrihita ) by the reins of the mind, but it is not intended
that they should be unyoked from the chariot or that their
movement should be stopped altogether. The aim of this
practice is that the mind should, to some extent at least, be
purified by the practice of selfless action and at least partially
liberated from the thraldom of attachments, so that it may
cease to assert its unique viewpoint at every moment. Then, Verses
as the wind of desire subsides, the disciple will feel a l umin ous 65j 71 ‘
peace and wisdom reflected in his heart, like the images of the
eternal stars reflected in the depths of a lake, and he will have
gained a preliminary perception of the actual nature of buddhi
that will be a thousand times more useful to him than all the j
descriptions of the books.

For the first time will the command to unite the manas
with the buddhi begin to have a meaning for him, and only now
will he be able to address himself to the task with any hope of
success. Far overhead, Its blazing Light as yet a mere pin-

18 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT* GITA

point to his vision, bums the Star of the Supreme Atman , the
Goal of all his efforts. Dimly It shines in the darkness and
seems to flicker as Its rays pierce tfce unsteady middle air,
but once seen It can never be forgotten, and offering
Verse 61. himself to It, in utter devotion and worship, the disciple
must press on, straining his vision to the utmost to pierce
Verse 69. through what to him are the darkly throbbing abysses of non-
being though to the fully awakened eye of the Seer they are a
radiant pleroma of Light, the “Light that shines beyond the
broken lamps,” the glorious sunshine of the Eternal Day. 1
Verse 72. “This is the Brahmik State, O Arjuna, which having attained,
one is deceived no more,” and though, as yet, the disciple has
but a distant glimpse of that Farther Shore, and though the
shadows will again and again return, blotting out the Light
from his eyes, yet will its memory remain with him for ever,
for he has “reached the stream” and the promise of final
Salvation has been uttered: “Whoever, even at the final hour,
is established therein attains the Supreme Nirvana .”

1 Compare Plotinus: “The sphere of sense is of the Soul in its slumber;
for all of Soul that is in body is asleep and the true getting-up is not bodily
but from the body” {On the Impassivity of the Incorporeal , vi).

CHAPTER III

THE YOGA OF ACTION

The third chapter commences with the disciple in doubt.

“If it be thought by Thee that knowledge is superior to action
why dost Thou, O Krishna, urge me to this terrible deed?” Verse I -
The Teacher has praised the wisdom of the Sankhyas , but had
th<£n urged the necessity of action, the thing which, above all,
was shunned by the followers of the Sankhya. Lastly, He
brought the discourse round once more to the praise of know-
ledge and described a state in which action would, at best,
appear an irrelevance. Small wonder that the disciple is
confused and begs to be taught clearly the one way to the
Goal.

Nevertheless, the teaching is not confused; it is only that
the disciple, in demanding a clear-cut intellectual presentation
which shall be decisive and final, is looking for something which
cannot be given. The method of a true Teacher is not to
overwhelm the mind by demanding assent to an intellectual
scheme clearly formulated once and for all. Such an assent,
even if given, is entirely useless, as it does not lift the disciple
above the level of the manas , the thinking mind. Rather, He
aims, by setting forth apparently conflicting but actually com-
plementary aspects of Truth, at forcing the disciple to transcend
the ordinary levels of thinking by having recourse to the higher
intuitive knowledge of the buddhi and thus bringing to birth
in his soul a new and synthetic knowledge which shall be
built into his very being.

If this is not sufficiently realised the reader is apt to make the
mistake of thinking that the thought of the Gita is actually
confused, or of picking out that aspect that most appeals to

him and iirnorinir th/* rpcf Put the Oita is neither a ronfnsed

20 - THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVA*T GITA

eclecticism nor a one-sided sectarianism. It aims at setting
forth the Yoga or Path to the Goal as a coherent whole, but in
so doing, it is inevitable that the mind, which loves to pursue
one train of thought to its logical conclusion regardless of
others, should be brought up sharply from time to time and
made to grasp the other sides as well.

Verse 3. In answer to the disciple’s query the T eacher states that since
the be ginnin g of time there have been two main types of
aspirant, corresponding to the duality that pervades the
manifested world. Modern psychology speaks of introverts,
or those whose natural tendency is to occupy themselves with
the subjective, and extroverts, or those whose natural flow of
energy is directed towards the outer world. -Corresponding
to these we have the yoga of knowledge practised by the
Sankhyas and the yoga of action of the karma yogis. Urged
on by the lack of balance in their own natures* one-sided
exponents always attempt to show that one of these is the chief
teaching and the other only subsidiary. But the duality in
the universe is not ultimate. In the end all is resolved into the
unitary Brahman, and therefore no one-sided view can be
the whole truth.

The doctrine of the karma yogis starts from the plain fact that
a cessation from all action is simply impossible. Even a
forcible abstention from the more obvious outer actions will
leave the mental actions quite unchecked, and in fact more
riotous because of the enforced outer inactivity. Psychologic-
ally it is certain that excessive and long-continued introversion
will have disastrous results upon the psychic health and — as
Jung, I think, puts it — the attempt to escape from all entangling
outer relationships will result in an eventual domination of the

Verse 4. ego by relationships of a neurotic and inferior type. “Not
by mere cessation of activity shall the soul rise to the state of
actionlessness,” and therefore, since action is a necessity, we
must make an effort to come to grips with it and prevent it
from exerting its fatal binding power on us.

For the meat objection to action as ordinarily performed

VTHE YOGA OF ACTION 21

lies in its connection with results. We are bound by the
results of our actions and must experience the consequences
whether pleasant or painful. This so-called law of karma is
apt to strike the Western mind as a mere unverified dogma
or, at best, as a philosophical speculation. In fact, however,
it is nothing of the kind, but a fact of nature which may be
experienced by anyone for himself. Even on the ordinary
levels of experience it is obvious that our destinies are largely
shaped by our characters and they, in turn, by the sum-total
of our past thoughts, and particularly those which have
crystallised into actions. The man who thinks cruel thoughts
usually proceeds to cruel deeds, and thus, becoming an object
of fear and hatred to others, is at least extremely liable to meet
with cruelty in his turn. Ordinary everyday experience can
perhaps not take us much farther than this probability; but
ordinary experience is not the final arbiter in these matters,
and he who advances on the inner path, the Path of Knowledge,
becomes immediately aware that it is no mere probability with
which we are concerned but a perfect and unerring law —

“By which the slayer’s knife did stab himself;

The unjust judge hath lost his own defender.”

In the world of mechanics it finds expression in Newton’s
famous law that action and reaction are equal and opposite.
The world of life is no less a unity than the world of matter,
all lives being interlocked in one vast whole. It follows that
any act— nay, any thought — sets up a tension in the whole
which, however delayed may be the response, with utter
inevitability brings about an “equal and opposite” reaction.
I repeat that this is no mere intellectual speculation fitting
only into the structure of some Oriental philosophy, but is a
profound truth of experience, which may, like other natural
laws, be disregarded only at one’s peril. The same perception,
quite divorced from “Hindu Philosophy,” found expression
in Christ’s flashing words: “They that take the sword shall
perish by the sword.”

22 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT? GITA

Thus, if action is inevitable, it is none the less a source
of bondage, and, by tying the soul to its own position, whether
good or bad, in the scheme of things, prevents that self-
transcendence in union with the All that constitutes the Goal.

The method proposed by the karma yogis was that of
scrupulous performance of the prescribed code of ritual
actions which, according to Hindu custom, filled a Brahman’s
life and regulated his conduct down to the minutest detail.
At the same time the yogi was to perform these actions without
any desire for the fruit, in the shape of worldly prosperity and
heavenly bliss, that the scriptures promised as the result of
such actions. In this way they hoped to avoid the impasse
created by the inevitability of action and its no less certain
binding power. They rightly perceived that the binding
power came not from the action itself but from the desire
with which it was performed, and therefore taught that if the
latter could be eliminated the poison fangs of the acts would
have been removed.

“The righteous who eat the remains of the sacrificial
offerings are freed from all sin, but those who merely prepare
food for their own sakes verily eat sin.”

This doctrine, literally understood, like the detachment
of the Sdnkhyas, is not enough in itself. Taken literally and
by itself it faita, because it reduces the vigorous creative life
of action to a dead round of sterile ceremonies and smothers
the spirit under a tedious formalism quite inapplicable to the
ordinary actions of life. For them, action was but a necessary
evil, inescapable while embodied, and they achieved peace
only by making a desert, escaping desire by stifling it under
tedium. To them, as to the typical follower of the pure
Sdnkhya , this rich and wondrous life must have been no
better than a ghastly mistake which had far better never have
occurred.

This mean and ignoble view of action is by no means that
of Sri Krishna. . For Him, as for the karma vosis. action is

THE YOGA OF ACTION

23

of the Brahmans. The lower or sense mind is to be sacrificed
to the higher and that higher to be united with the buddht,
as we have seen in the last chapter.

It is time now to say'a few words about the actual process
by which this is to be accomplished. We have seen (in the
Prolegomena) how between Arjuna, the higher mind, and
Dhtfitarashtra, the lower, stands Sanjaya, the second charioteer,
the voice of conscience speaking in the heart of the eternal
values. Just as the buddht, the Divine Knowledge, serves
as a link between the individual ego and the One Life ( Mahat
Atman), so does Sanjaya on a lower plane serve as a link
between the empirical personality and the true individual
Self. By uniting with the buddht the mind is raised into
transcendence, and similarly, by making the empirical person-
ality or lower mind the servant of the voice of Sanjaya, the
personality is raised to union with its own true Self.

This is the reason for so much emphasis upon performing
action as a duty. The lower self is not to be destroyed by
self-mortification, but to be united with the higher by being Verse
trained to obey the voice of the higher under all circumstances.
“Right action” is to be performed, the test of rightness being
its accord with the commands of that voice and not with any
outer scriptural injunctions. The disciple must always listen
for that voice, and having heard it must always act in accord-
ance with it. By this means the lower self will be purified of
its attachment to desire and will in time become united with
the higher. This must be achieved before the next stage,
that of union with the buddhi, the dhyana paramitd of the
Mahay ana Buddhists, becomes possible . 1

Having dealt with the practical importance of action, Sri
Krishna next goes on to show its moral and cosmic significance.

In a few rapid words He sketches the yajha chakra, the great
Cycle of Sacrifice 2 that forms the manifested Cosmos, and

1 See Chapter VI, which deals with this stage.

8 It should not be supposed that verses 14 and 15 are pieces of archaic
“ rain- making magic.” “Food” signifies the gross material world of which
f orms are built and “rain” the forces of desire which brings those forms

24 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT/GITA

shows how action is rooted in the Imperishable. Forth into
all quarters of space streams in sacrifice the life-blood of the
Supreme Purusha. But for that sustaining life the worlds
would “fall into ruin,” and ceaselessly does the Supreme pour
Verses Itself forth in action for the welfare of all. Round and round
i°-i6. Qj-deg this One Life through all beings in the worlds as It
weaves unweariedly the pattern of the universe, and none can
claim a proud independence of his brothers. The knowledge
of the world that comes to us so easily to-day we owe to
countless thinkers and discoverers of the past, and we cannot
walk down the street of a town without treading on the bowed
backs of the nameless toilers of dim bygone ages. Our
intellects owe their every possibility of thought to those who
strove to grasp new conceptions long ago, and even our eyes
are what they are only as a result of long and painful struggles
of which no record now remains. No record, that is, but the
debt inscribed in the imperishable characters of the book of
Karma , a debt that claims our actions in return and from which
not the proudest yogi in a Himalayan cave is free, though he
may choose to ignore it. “He who on earth doth not follow
the Wheel thus revolving, sinful of life and rejoicing in the
senses, he, O Arjuna, liveth in vain.”

Thus action is seen to be not only a mere physical necessity
for those who are embodied. - It is also a moral necessity,
since out of sacrificial action spring the worlds and by sacrifices
are they maintained in their ceaseless whirling around and
in the Central Sun. Consciousness (the Gods) nourishes
the forms, and forms in their turn sustain that Consciousness
in manifestation. Thus is the whole universe linked in one
stupendous Sacrifice, each separate element being related to
all else that is.

It is important to realise, however — and that is why the

into being. The sacrifice is the sacrificial self-limitation by which the
many issue from the One and “karma” action, is the Mula-prakrin from
which all action issues (cf. Gita, viii, 3, and xiii, 29). While “karma” is
the Mula-prakxiti considered as the source of all action, “Brahma” (verse 15)
is the same considered as the source of being, the great matrix (cf. Gita,
xiv, 3), while the Imperishable is of course the supreme Parabrahman.

THE YOGA OF ACTION

25

instruction in the Sankhyan wisdom preceded the teaching
about action — that without knowledge of the Atman the
sacrificial action is not possible in the true sense. Until
the One Self, or at least Its forth-shining Light, is known, the
abandonment of all desire for the fruits of action is in no way
really feasible and remains but a matter of grand words. The
Light of the Atman must be known to some extent at least,
and just in proportion as It is known, not as a matter of theoretic
philosophy but as a vivid reality present in every moment of
experience, will the disciple be able to discard any wish for
the fruits of his actions. Rather will it be seen that the desire Verses
for fruits is an utter irrelevance which will fall away of itself , 173 18 ‘
though only for as long as the disciple is thus centred in the Light.

When at last, after long and persistent struggles, this centring
of life in the Atman is permanently established, when the
disciple rejoices in the Atman and is content with the Atman ,
there will remain nothing further to be accomplished for
himself and “no object of his will depend on any being.”

Nevertheless, in thus escaping from “private” action, he Verses
has but united himself with the Divine and Cosmic action , 22 * 4 ’
and of him it will be said, as of Krishna Himself, that, though
there is nothing in the three worlds that is unattained by him,
yet he mingl es in action unweariedly for the sake of the welfare
of all. Note the word “unwearied.” . The Sacrificial Action,
to a union with which the disciple aspires, is no tiresome
carrying out of dull and spiritless acts such as are too often
called up in our minds by the words sacrifice and duty. We
saw how, at the beginning of the Path, the disciple was filled
with despair at the thought of the joyless life which awaited
him when all the desires which made life seem worth living
should be slain. But this is an illusion which has to be dis-
pelled. “As the ignorant act out of attachment to action. Verse 25
so should the wise act without attachment, desiring the welfare
of the world.” The glow which accompanies the desire-
prompted actions of the worldly, the enthusiasm and zest of
youth and the tireless energy of the ambitious, must all be

26 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT/GITA

preserved and transmuted into something higher and not
allowed to drain away into desert sands. The true “vairdgi”
is not a dull, dried-up, “holy” person of the type that has
made the very name of religion a thing of nausea to so many of
us, but a tireless fountain of joyful and inspired life based
on the eternal dnanda of the Brahman which overflows into
creation out of Its own inherent fullness.

This, then, is the charter of action, the fact that the whole
Cosmos is established on sacrifice; not on mere formal acts
of ceremonial offering but on that of which these were but
the outward symbol, the Great Sacrifice of which we read in
the Vedas , 1 in which the One Purusha was offered in the fires
of the worlds and His Limbs scattered like those of Osiris to
all the quarters of space. This is the Sacrifice which the
disciple is called to co-operate in. But, though he acts
ceaselessly, yet is he not bound by karma , for his grounding
in the Sankhyan wisdom has taught him that actions are
performed by the modifications of prakriti alone. His bodies,
gross and subtle, act, and the unwise are entangled in the
acts, but he who has mastered the lesson of the previous
Verses chapter has learnt to see that the Atman , the True Self, is
37 3 °' for ever but the detached Witness, serene and impartial.
Actions can no more bind Him than weapons can pierce Him,
and, clinging firmly to this knowledge in his heart, offering
his actions to Krishna as the symbol of the Great Sacrifice,
free from the fetters of selfish hope and fear, he engages with
zest in the great battle against evil and sorrow, the evil of his
own lower nature and the sorrow of his brothers.

For let none think that the battle is won at the first
triumphant blare of the trumpets. The knowledge that
has been given must be practised and built into the heart
by constant struggle. Again and again must the battle be
fought, and he who, shutting with subtle sophisms his eyes
to tie imperfections still existing in his lower nature, and his
ears to the cry for help that sounds pitifully from suffering

1 Rig-Veda., x > 90.

THE YOGA OF ACTION

27

humanity, seeks to rest on his laurels is unworthy of the
Wisdom he has received and is doomed to fall, however
proudly he may carry tilings off for the time.

Doubts will assuredly come tormenting the heart with the
suggestion that the struggle is useless:

“All things are vain and vain the knowledge of their vanity;

Rise and go hence, there is no better way
Than patient scorn, nor any help for man,

Nor any staying of his whirling wheel.” 1

All beings follow their own natures. The Atman is the Verse 3;
impartial Witness of all; good and evil are but empty words
and the fight against the latter is in vain. What shall restraint
avail since actions flow inevitably from the workings of Nature
and the Soul is but the passive witness of the phantom show?

But these deceiving half-truths must be conquered. It is
true that the play of Nature follows fixed laws and that effect
follows cause with unerring accuracy. Deeply embedded
in the Cosmos is the power of attraction and repulsion by
which all things move and change. From the chemical
elements with their “affinities,” to men with their loves and Verses
hates, all are bound by this power within the iron circle of 34 ’ 35 '
Necessity — all, that is, save he who has conquered desire and
acts from a sense of duty ( swadharma ) alone. ,As long as the t
disciple does certain acts because he likes them and abstains
from certain others because he dislikes them, so long must
he whirl helplessly upon the Wheel; for, though he may be
of a “virtuous” disposition, and so perform but “virtuous”
acts, yet is he none the less the victim of his own nature.

But the Atman, the One Self, is for ever free in Its own being;

Its apparent bondage comes only from the self-identification
with Its lower vehicles, the mirrors in which Its Light is re-
flected. The higher the disciple climbs up the Ladder of the
Soul, the more the inherent freedom of the Atman will shine ;
forth and dominate the play of Nature instead of blindly
suffering it.

1 Light of Asia.

28 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT &ITA

Verse 43. He who acts from the dictates of the tnanas is freer than he
who acts from those of the senses, and freer still is he whose
manas is united with the buddhi and suffused by its Light, the
Light of the glorious Flame Beyond/ Therefore, instead of
allowing himself to be guided by the likes and dislikes of the
senses, the disciple must constantly strive, by acting from a
sense of duty alone, to rise to higher and ever-higher levels of
his being. Bound as he is by his nature at any given level, yet
is he free with the inherent freedom of the Atman to choose
whether he will act from his lower nature or from his higher.
True the “higher” will ever recede as he climbs, and what is
“higher” now will become “lower” in time; but at each stage
his freedom will increase until he reaches the Unreachable and
all desire is dead in that blazing Unity, slain like a moth at the
threshold by the touch of the frosty air without.

Verse 43. “Thus understanding Him (the Atman ) as higher than the
buddhi , restraining the lower self by the Atman , slay thou, O
Mighty-armed, the enemy in the form of desire, difficult to be
overcome.”

Let the disciple dwell on this concluding verse, for in its few
words is contained the secret that has baffled so many ascetics
and philosophers, the secret of the conquest of desire. True,
it is a secret that cannot be imparted in words, one which must
be experienced in the heart; but he who has even partially
understood the meaning of the words “restraining the lower
self by the Atman” may know for certain that his foot is on the
ladder, and that if he will resolutely put his knowledge into
practice his further progress is assured, and neither gods nor
men can hinder his ultimate attainment of the Goal.

CHAPTER IV

THE YOGA OF THE PARTIAL KNOWLEDGE 1

“The same imperishable yoga that I taught to Vivaswan 2 long verse j
ages ago I am again setting forth for thee to-day.” Thus opens
the fourth chapter, and in so saying Sri Krishna reveals the
source and credentials of the teaching He has to impart. It is
no “new” doctrine, the private property of a particular teacher,
that is being set forth; nothing, either, that is intended to form
a new sect, shut off by the fortress walls of dogma from the life
all around, walls which will have to be broken with infinite
pain before the imprisoned souls can escape.

It has to be clearly understood that there is no ownership in
the realm of ideas. Ideas are not the property of individual
thinkers. Rather is it the fact, as Plato rightly taught, that
when we entertain a “new” idea we do but participate in
something that is eternal, and that when two men “think” of
the same idea they are united with each other by this very fact
since both are participating in a particular facet of the Eternal
Wisdom. Ideas are greater than any of the finite minds that
think them and the Wisdom is greater than any particular
teacher. Therefore it was that the Buddha made no claim to

1 This chapter, a mere literal translation of the title of which would be
“the yoga of the section of knowledge” as distinguished from the full
knowledge of Chapter VII, deals with knowledge as applied to the Sacrificial
Action. Just as the theories of the Sankhyas and karma yogis formed the
backgrounds of the two previous chapters, so the sacrificial theories of the
Mimansakas form the background of this one.

2 Vivaswan, Manu and Ikshvaku may be taken as standing for the Divine
Kings of the prehistoric period. Even as late as the time of the Upanishads
we find Brahmans going to Kshattriyas for instruction in the secret wisdom.

In Egypt the same is true: above all the priests stood the Pharaoh. Rama,
Krishna, Buddha were all Kshattriyas, rulers of the world — and of men’s
hearts. Tilak has pointed out that these same names occur in the Guru-
parampard of the very old Vaishnava School termed Bhagawatas of Pan-
char atrikas. See Mahabhdrata> Shdnti Parva .

29

30 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

ori ginalit y, being content to say that what He taught was but
the echo of the teaching of all the former Buddhas, and there-
fore it is that Sri Krishna is careful tq explain that the Yoga
He is teaching to Arjuna is but a restatement of the Eternal
Wisdom taught under the same Divine sanction to Vivaswan
long ages before.

Let none suppose, however, that by the phrase “Eternal
Wisdom” is here meant some body of teachings set down in
intellectual form in any books however old. The Wisdom is
the wordless Truth itself as existing eternally in the Cosmic
Ideation. It is the Norm by which all teachings must be
judged, the Fount from which all great religions and philoso-
phies have sprung, and being beyond the level of individu-
ality it is utterly impersonal. It is the Truth. Fortunate is
that man through whose mind even a ray of that Wisdom Light
can manifest, for, though he still may make frequent mistakes,
yet he has in his hands an Ariadne thread with which, if he will
but follow it up, he can make his way safely through the
labyrinth of theories and avoid the quicksands of doubt. It is
this Wisdom which inspired the ancient Sages and the Divine

Verse 2 . Kings of whom the records of all the archaic people tell, and
it is this Wisdom, or rather Its manifestation, that has “decayed
here on earth through great efflux of time” as the warring
schools sought each to imprison in its own system the gleaming
splendour that shone in the words of its Founder. Vain their
efforts, as of one who wo.uld seek to grasp the spirit of life by
hermetically sealing up some living being!

Verse 3. Jnana yoga. Karma yoga , Bhakti yoga, Dhyana yoga , all
are but one-sided glimpses, fragments of that mighty whole,
the “imperishable Yoga,” the imparting of which in its all-
sided beauty is the aim of Sri Krishna.

• Sri Krishna, in fact, is that Wisdom, incarnate here on
earth, not once but many times in order to reveal in every act
and gesture that which is hidden in all mere “teaching,” the
ultimate Mystery of His own Divine Being, beyond the reach
of mind.

THE YOGA OF THE PARTIAL KNOWLEDGE 31

It is the birth of this Wisdom in the human soul that is Verses

go

celebrated each year at the Janmashtmi festival, 1 the Wisdom
that destroys the demons of ignorance and selfishness, the
Wisdom whose other navies are Love and Sacrifice. Though
Unborn and Undying, yet does this Wisdom-Love manifest
in human souls from time to time, 2 and especially at times of
great spiritual stress when materialism and the cosmic forces of
disharmony are straining at the personalities of men and forcing
them away from their contact with the Inner Watcher. At
such times a terrific tension is set up in the inner worlds, a
tension which manifests itself in a psychic unrest in the heart
of man, and also among the peoples of the earth, tossing them
hither and thither in wars and revolutions like corks upon a sea
of sorrow.

Then, like the lightning flash cleaving the night, comes at Verse 9.
the dark midnight hour the great Mystery, the birth of the
Birthless, the action of the Actionless, and once again the Light
of the World is revealed to them that walk in darkness. There-
fore does Sri Krishna say that they who know the essential
nature of His Divine birth and actions wander no more in the
cycles of suffering but attain to His exalted Being. 3

But not only at certain seasons in the outer world must that
Birth take place. It is not enough to look with longing
backward-turned eyes at the Light which once blazed with
such splendour in Muttra, at Buddha-Gaya, or in Nazareth. In
the dark soul of every disciple must the Divine Krishna be
born, and throughout the ages many are those who, filled with
the new-born Wisdom, the Slayer of the demons of passion,
fear and anger, have passed along by the ancient narrow Path
(the anuh panthd puranah of the Upanishads) and, piercing
through the Darkness, have entered His Being.

1 The Hindu Christmas, the birthday of Sri Krishna, occurring in
August-September.

2 This does not imply that it is only in the soul that the Descent or
avatarma takes place. Stress has here been laid on the inner (adhyatmik)
significance, but it is in no way intended to suggest that Sri Krishna was not
“born” in the outer world as well.

3 See “Note on Avataras,” Appendix D.

32 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT* GITA

Verse u. “in all ways 1 men follow My Path,” says Krishna, and,
indeed, there is no other Path, nanyah pantha viiyatiyanaya. 2
The only bridge that spans the sea of sorrow is the Bridge of
Light, the many-coloured rainbow bridge, and, though one may
give what names one pleases to the various stages, and may use
primarily intellect, emotion, or unselfish action as the stick by
the help of which one essays the crossing, yet is it the same
Path for all, the Ladder of Souls figured on many an Egyptian
papyrus 8 and known to all the ancient teachers of the world,
“the ladder whose foot rests in the deep mire of the disciple’s
sins and failings but whose summit is lost in the glorious Light
of Nirvana .” * Truly did Hermes Trismegistus say of it: “If
thou but settest foot on this Path, thou shalt see it everywhere,
both when and where thou dost expect it not.”

But no mere theoretical knowledge of the Path will enable
the disciple to tread it. It can be trodden only by becoming
oneself its various stages. “In this Path, to whatever place
one goes, that place one’s own self becomes.” 5 The con-
sciousness must be raised step by step, and it is useless to think,
as did certain Sankhyas, that if only action could be abandoned
the soul would fly up at once, like a bird released from a cage.
Useless, because, even if the more obvious outer actions be
forcibly abandoned, the subtle actions of the mind will remain
to bind the soul as firmly as ever. 4

The only way to tread the Path in reality is by the knowledge
of Krishna, of the Atman which is present as the unseen back-
ground of every action, of the smallest as of the greatest, of the
action that sends the pen across this page as of the action that
Verse 14. hurls a million men into battle. Just as no thing can move
except within the framework of space, so nothing can take place
except within the Light of the Atman , which yet is no more

1 “From all sides” is another translation, but both Shankara and Sridhara
paraphrase “ sarvashah ” as “ sarvaprakaraih ”

2 Shwetashmatara Upanishad> vi, 15.

s E.g. Book of the Dead , xcviii (Theban Recension).

4 Voice of the Silence .

5 Jndneshttiari , vi, 160.

* For discussion of the “four castes” (verse 13) see Chapter XVIII.

THE YOGA OF THE PARTIAL KNOWLEDGE 33

entangled in the actions than space is entangled in the move-
ments of objects, and therefore Krishna says that those who
know Him are freed from the bonds of action.

Such men are wise, forthey see inaction in action and action Verse 18.
in inaction. They see, that is, that while in the midst of all
movements broods the motionless Atman , yet do all actions
spring from that Atman, or, rather, take place within that calm
and passionless Light. This is the knowledge whose fire
burns up all actions, slaying desire for selfish fruits and making Verses
the man a Sage who, though his body and mind are for ever 19 23 '
engaged in action, yet does nothing since he clings to naught.

“Of one with attachment dead, liberated from bondage,
with his thoughts established in knowledge, his works sacrifices,
all action melts away.”

For certainly the instinct which leads so many to reject the
idea of an actionless life in spite of all arguments is a sound one.

To reject action is to create a dualism between the Brahman
and the universe, which leaves the latter on our hands as a vast
cosmic folly, worse than folly, a monstrous cruelty that stinks
to the heavens. But it is not so. There is no ultimate dualism
in the Reality. It is not action that binds, for the surging tides
of the manifested cosmos are as truly the manifestation of the
supreme Brahman as is the calm bliss of the stainless witnessing
Self. What binds us is a wrong attitude to action, the “knots
of the heart” which, springing from ignorance, make us fancy
that we are so many separate individuals, isolated from each
other and “free” to perform actions for our selfish ends. This,
and not action in itself, is what binds us, and therefore it is that
Krishna returns again and again to the theme of unattachment
to the fruits of action, for there is no freedom for the selfish
actor any more than for a bird that is in the meshes of a net.

Let it, however, once become clear that the manifestation is
also an aspect of the Supreme Brahman and it will be evident Verse 24.
that, there must be a way of action which does not bind the
Soul. And this is the realisation that now begins to dawn in
the heart of the disciple. He sees, though as yet but with his

5

34 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAf GITA

mind, for there is still a long and weary road to be traversed
before the vision will permeate his whole being, that the
action, the actor and the act are all so many manifestations of
the stainless Eternal, and that if allmction be but offered as a
sacrifice in the consuming fire of that Brahman there can be
no bondage; for the root-cause of the bondage, the ignorance
which makes a dualism and a multiplicity where there is in
truth but One, is now removed and, if not yet eradicated
entirely, is at least seen for what it is, an unreal phantom, like
the snake which is seen where in reality is but a rope.

This knowledge has now to be applied if it is to be made
effective,, and so the Teacher proceeds to enumerate various
Verses types of practice by which the knowledge may be made to
25 3 °‘ pervade the whole life of the disciple. Some will practise
restraint of the senses as a prelude to that more advanced
stage in which the now controlled senses can be used for the
service of the Atman which is in all. Others endeavour to
serve with their wealth or learning, or with that concentrated
force of character which is the result of self-discipline ( tapasya ).
Others again devote themselves to yogic practices with a view
to gaining that inner poise which will enable them to keep their
balance in the whirlpool of activity and to hold out helping
hands to others in due season.

All these strive to sacrifice themselves in various ways to
Verse 33. the Atman who is in all,, and all these sacrifices c ulminat e in
the wisdom 1 sacrifice, the effort to gain the life-giving wisdom,
not, again, in order that oneself may be wise, but because in
wisdom lies salvation for all.

Verse 34. ^ All action and all efforts find their completion in the gaining
of that Wisdom, but just as life springs only from other lives,
so the flame of wisdom can be lit only by contact with those
in whose heart it already shines. The disciple must resort to
the feet of a wise teacher, one who is an embodiment of that
Teacher Who is already in his heart, the Eternal Wisdom
referred to before. Some will wonder why, if the Teacher is
1 See chapter xviii, verse 70, for explanation of the Jnana Yajna.

THE YOGA OF THE PARTIAL KNOWLEDGE 35

already present in the heart, there should be need for an
external Guru at all. True, the Teacher is there, but we are
so used to listening only jo the trumpet tones of desire that the
still small voice in the heart passes unheeded. Too often does
the disciple mistake the promptings of desire and of unpurified
emotion for the intuition which is the Voice of the Teacher,
and therefore is it that he needs the guidance of one who,
because his whole being has become one with the Wisdom, can
speak with the same voice as that Teacher in the heart and yet
do so in tones which can be heard with the outer ear.

Such Gurus are always to be found at the right time, for the
earth is never without men who know the Truth, men who,
however scattered and unlinked with each other they may
appear, yet constitute a Race apart, a Race whose Light
shineth in darkness though the darkness comprehendeth it
not, a Race which never dies, for it is constantly renewed
throughout the ages as the torch of Wisdom passes from hand
to hand.

But it is not by wandering restlessly hither and thither, by
searching out the remoter corners of the earth, that the Guru
can be found. The Path which leads to the feet of the Guru, Verse
outer as well as inner, is an interior path, and only by treading
the preliminary steps by oneself can one reach the outer
Guide. It is only when this stage has been reached, the stage
at which the disciple is ready to offer up his self in sacrifice
to the Self in all, that the Guru can and does manifest himself:
“When the disciple is ready the Guru appears.” 1 For him
whose aims are selfish, however “refined ” the selfishness
may be, no teacher will be forthcoming, for he could be of
little use, since his work is but to make more manifest the
Voice in the heart, and until the disciple has learnt to listen
always for that inner Voice a blind obedience to an external

1 Popular superstition has it that no Guru can give diksha (initiation)
unless he is given dakshtxia (a fee). Corrupt as all such practices are, this
is a symbol of a profound truth. Of all who seek a Guru the question is
asked: “What do you offer and what will you give in return for the Wisdom
that you seek?”

36 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

authority can do more harm than good, destroying self-
reliance and so rendering fainter that which is too faint already.

When, however, the right stage oj development has been
reached and the disciple has found his Guru, he must, by the
obedience of self-effacement, and the service which consists
in putting the will at the disposal of the Teacher, so unite his
being with that of the latter that the Wisdom which shines
in him may light up in the disciple too.

Then will the disciple begin to see that all beings are within
Verse 35. the Light of the One Self, just as all things exist within the
matrix of space, and, by the raft of this Wisdom Light, he
will commence to cross over to the Farther Shore. For,
just as fire reduces fuel to ashes, so does the Wisdom Light
destroy all sense of difference and multiplicity . 1 The actions
which fatally bound the self are powerless to affect the Self,
for action binds through ignorance and the Self is free through
Wisdom.

But though the Wisdom will save him who lays hold of it
from bondage to his past sins, none should think that there is
any room here for antinomianism, for none can serve God and
Mammon, and he who is guilty of that egoistic self-assertion
which is the essence of all “sin” is by that very fact far removed
from the Wisdom whose heart is sacrifice of self.

True, the Wisdom is hidden in the hearts of all, “even of
Verses the most sinful,” but it is only he who is “perfected in yoga,”
35-39. yj sacrificial action, that finds It there in due season. . For
this the disciple needs faith ( shraddha ), a not the blind belief
of the sectarian creeds-men, but the firm aspiration of the
soul which seeks to give itself, an aspiration which is itself a
reflection of the Wisdom that it preludes. Not only must he
have this faith. He must also have gained the mastery over

1 Christians who are not too fettered by superstition may see here the
meaning of the salvation of sinners by faith in the crucifixion of Christ.
The blood of Christ is the Wisdom Light which is shed through the sacrifice
of self for the sake of all. That Light* if clung to* has power by its very
nature to save “even the most sinful of sinners/'

2 The nature of “faith" will be further discussed in connection with
chapter xvii.

THE YOGA OF THE PARTIAL KNOWLEDGE 37

his senses, else will they carry him away “as the wind hurries
away a ship upon the waters,” 1 and the sails of aspiration
that were set for the voyage to the Deathless will but bear the
Soul more swiftly to the black rocks of death.

Above all must the disciple beware of doubt,* that creeps
in like a dark fog over the sea, blotting out the guiding stars
and filling the soul with despair. From time to time as he
tries to advance will this fog of doubt enwrap his heart. The Verse 4
Light by which he has hitherto been guided will fade and be
eclipsed, and all that he has accomplished will seem vain and
a delusion. Then must he show of what material he is made,
for if he wavers and loses heart he is lost indeed. Clinging
to the compass of the Wisdom, an intellectual memory of which
is all that remains to him in this condition, he must press on
in confidence that the fog will lift in time and the familiar
stars shine forth once more. For, in the end, it is only the
Wisdom which can silence doubt. As long as there is any Verses
clinging to a separate self, so long is there fear for that self,
since all that is separate must one day cease to be. Only the
Wisdom which knows the Self as One in all can silence the
whisperings of fear and cleave the fog of doubt. Only he
shall live who feareth not to die, and such fearlessness can be
his alone who, by the buddhi yoga , has united himself to the
Light and, by the karma yoga, has offered up the self in sacrifice
to Self. He alone will stand rock-like in the Self when selves
are scattered like leaves by the burning winds of sorrow.

“Therefore with the sword of the knowledge of the One
Self cleaving asunder the ignorance-bom doubt dwelling in
thy heart, be established in Yoga and stand up, O Arjuna.”

1 Gita, ii, 67.

8 The doubt referred to here is not mere intellectual doubt, which is ;
the usual precursor of any advance in knowledge; still less is it doubt
of orthodox dogmas, for all clinging to dogmas must be destroyed, root
and branch. It is the doubt of the reality of what has once been perceived,
and springs from the inevitable pendulum swing of reaction after an advance
has been made. If it is conquered further advance will come, but if given
way to all progress is stopped. i

CHAPTER V

THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION

Verse i. “Renunciation of actions Thou praisest, O Krishna, and then
also {karma) yoga. Tell me decisively which of the two is
better.”

The Wisdom which is now filtering into the consciousness
of the disciple is not the intellectual knowledge of the schools,
the knowledge which holds firm to the part as if that were the
whole, but a unifying wisdom which fuses the broken lights of
the mind into a living unity which the unaided intellect cannot
reach. No one who has reached this stage can view the seated
majesty of the Buddha without knowing in his soul that renun-
ciation alone gives peace. But neither, when he contemplates
the many-faceted figure of Krishna, warrior, statesman, lover,
friend, can he refuse his soul’s assent to that marvellous
revelation of the Divine action, free and unfettered in the very
midst of the cosmic whirl.

The interpreting mind asserts that these are incompatible
Verses ideals and with facile logic seeks to lead the disciple to one
4 ’ 5 ' side or the other; but he must cling, instead, to the inner
wisdom of his soul, which will teach him how these seeming
irreconcilables are in reality two aspects of the same truth.
He truly sees who sees that the true meaning of the renunciation
of actions that is taught by the Sankhya is the same as that of
the action taught by the karma yogis. For, in truth, words
are but fingers pointing to the moon, and though the mind
clings desperately to its analytic hold upon the finger, the*
Soul reaches out intuitively to That which lies beyond.

True renunciation cannot be attained by any sudden wrench
of the will, even though, when it does come, it may seem to
Verse 6. appear with all the swift glory of the lightning. “Without

38

THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION

39

yoga, renunciation is hard to attain to.” As long as there is
the feeling of a separate self, so long true renunciation is
impossible, for it is the personal self which is the seat of
attachment, being but th£ hypothetical or illusory centre of
the bundle of attachments, likes and dislikes that make up the
so-called self of man.

Psychologists can tell us how this “self” is gradually built
up in the originally “selfless” infant, how it expands and
becomes more complex with experience, how strains in the
imperfectly integrated experience may sometimes distort and
split it into two or more separate “personalities,” and how
these may be welded into one again by harmonising the con-
flicting stresses. Truly do they teach, as the Buddha taught
long before, that in all this there is nothing immortal, nothing
permanent, no hard changeless centre in the ever-changing
flux of experience which could in truth be called a self. This
self that we prize so dearly and to which we subordinate all
is a mere emptiness, the empty heart of a whirlpool, a mathe-
matical point which changes its position, not only from year
to year, but even from hour to hour, as a man shifts from his
“business” integration to that which is manifested at his home
or his club.

Therefore does Sri Krishna teach that the disciple must
utterly destroy the false sense of self, realising in all that he Verses
does, “speaking, giving, grasping,” no self is involved; only 7_9 ‘
“the senses moving among the objects of the senses.”

But a whirlpool is real even though its centre be empty , 1
and Life is real though lives are devoid of permanent selves.
There is a Life that is the Light of men, “a Light that shineth
in darkness though the darkness comprehendeth it not.”

That Life, the Atman , is the Self of all beings, the very Breath
of the Eternal, of which the Rig-Veda says: “The Only One,
the breathless, breathed by Its own nature; apart from It was
nothing whatsoever.”

It is that One Life which is the life of all beings, that One

1 Empty of any thing, that is. See Appendix B.

40 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Self, if it may be called a Self, which is the inmost heart of
all. In that Life alone can immortality be achieved, and only
when it is realised that it is in the bosom of that Ocean of
Light that all these whirlpools of Activity have their -being.
Verse 10. only then can the disciple “place his actions in the Eternal”
and, in renouncing the illusory finite centre, achieve that
renunciation of attachment which leaves the actions free and
divine.

The disciple must, then, learn to divest himself of ego-
Verse n. centricity. He must no longer act for the separate self but
for that Self which is in all, which means in practice that,
seeking neither gain nor fame, he must work for the welfare
of his fellow-beings . Body, mind and senses will act as before,
but their actions must no longer find their meaning solely in
the point within them, but in that mystic Circle whose centre
is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

When he has achieved some success in this yoga of dis-
interested action the disciple will notice a change taking place
within himself. Instead of the elusive personal centre, the
empty and featureless point of reference, he will perceive a
Light shining where before all was darkness, will hear a Voice
where previously all was silence.

It is of this stage that the Chinese Secret of the Golden Flower
writes: “When one begins to apply this magic, it is as if, in
the middle of one’s being, there were a non-being. When
in the course of time the work is finished, and beyond the
body there is another body, it is as if, in the middle of the
non-being, there were a being. Only after a completed work
of a hundred days will the Light be real, then only it will
become spirit-fire. After a hundred days there develops by
itself, in the middle of the Light, a point of the true Light-
pole (yang). Suddenly there develops the seed-pearl. It is
as if man and woman embraced and a conception took place.”
Verse 13. ‘‘Having renounced all (desire-prompted) action with his
mind, the Inner Ruler sits blissfully in the nine-gated city
of the body, neither acting nor causing to act.”

THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION 41

For the centre within is only illusory when considered as
an independent self, a monad separate from all others. In
reality the “point” within is a window, a point of view through
which the Eternal Oni as subject looks out upon Itself as
object. Just as a window, empty in itself, is yet a focus
through which the all-pervading sunlight can illumine the
world of objects, themselves but other forms of the energy
we know as light, so is the self a focus through which can
shine the Light of the One Consciousness illumining the
objective world which is the other aspect of the Great Atman
or Universal Mind ( Mahat Atman).

This Light, differing in no way from that which shines
through the innumerable other foci which constitute the
world of beings, is the real Self, and, as stated in the text, it Verses
dwells blissfully in the body, neither acting nor causing to I4> r5 '
act. Serene in Itself, It is untouched by the good and evil
deeds of the personality and constitutes a fortress in which
the disciple can take refuge, unharmed by the tides of battle,
and yet in no selfish isolation, for he will be one with all
that is.

This inner Self, however, as is shown by the use of the
word “vibhu,” the all-pervading one, is not to be regarded Verse 1
as an eternally existing monad, separate for each disciple.

In all the worlds there is nothing eternal but the one Brahman,
and to consider the “inner point” as a permanent separate
self, even if a “higher” one, is to attempt to repeat on a higher
level the unwisdom which sets oneself over against others. 1 * * * * * * * * *

As long as this delusion of separateness exists, so long is Verses;
“wisdom enveloped by unwisdom.” When, however, this 15 ~ 17 '

1 This is the great heresy of satkayadrishti against which the Buddha

directed so much of his teaching, the theory that there are permanent

soul monads* eternally separate. What has here been described as the

higher Self* the true Ego* constitutes no doubt a relatively permanent

individual centre* but it is in reality only a focus of the One Self and not

a separate entity. Its separateness lies only in its content* not in itself. §

Strictly speaking* even the One Universal Self (the Aiahat Atman) is not

permanent* since it is part of the manifested Universe and is withdrawn

at the universal dissolution ( pralaya ) into the Parabrahman * which is alone ;

eternal in the strict sense of die word.

42 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

clinging to separate existence is abandoned, the disciple is
able to pass through the inner door of the heart and to enter
a realm in which he is one with all, and in which the wisdom
light of the one Atman shines forth uhobstructedly, revealing
the Supreme, the nameless Eternal. All names are based
on the discriminating analysis of the mind, and how should
names be given to that which is one and indivisible in all?
Therefore have the sages referred to It merely as “That,”
that Reality “from which the mind turns back together with
the senses, unable to comprehend.” 1
This is not the first knowledge which the disciple has had
of “That.” Long before, in chapter two, he had his first
intuitive glimpse of It, though, at that time. It presented
Itself to him merely as the Unmanifest, the unchanging
background of all that is. Again, at the stage represented
by chapter four, he perceived It a little more clearly as the
mysterious source of all the action in the world. Thus,
Verses circling round in spiral progress, he gets ever nearer to clear
18, 19. vision, and now, peering through the open “inner door” he
sees that the Eternal is the same in all, in learned Brahmin
and in despised outcast, in animals as in men. Stainless and
equal in all is the Supreme Eternal Brahman, and the disciple
who has seen that Light sees that it is the merest folly to
suppose that It can be affected by the good or evil deeds of
men. As the pure sunlight is not affected by the foulness
of objects that it falls upon, so the Brahma Light is not touched
by the differences in the bodies which It illumines. This is
a plain fact which all who care may see for themselves, and
he who has seen it will of necessity look with a very different
eye upon his fellow-beings. Behind all the masks, beautiful
or repulsive, is the one Clear Light, and no longer can he
think of men as beings to be praised, criticised, or condemned.
His gaze centred on the Light, his one thought will be how to
help It to shine more clearly through the obstructing bodies,
and, acting with that in view, he will gradually achieve in

1 T ait tiny a Upamshad> II* iv* i.

THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION

43

practice that abandonment of self-prompted action which
constitutes the true renunciation.

On this Path action and vision go hand in hand, and that
is why the teachings of the Gita alternate between knowledge
and action in a way so baffling to the purely intellectual man.

Purified and disciplined action opens the inner eye and grants
the vision of the highest that the disciple is yet capable of
seeing. But that vision must not remain a mere private
ecstasy. It must be translated into action, and so built into
the personality before another range of vision can present
itself to the inner eye and the way be opened for yet another
cyclic advance.

A casual reading of this section (e.g. verses 17 or 24) might
suggest that the full attainment is being described or, at
least, that it is now possible for the disciple to go “straight
through,” as it were, by the longed-for short-cut. But it
is not so. The disciple at this stage is as one who has got
his head through the inner door but whose body is too big
to follow. Once again the vision must be translated into
practice. His body, the personality, must be so refined by
vision-lit action that it will cease to be an obstacle to his
passing right through, and, though these verses may describe
the condition of attainment, yet are they meant but to encourage
the disciple and to help him to keep before his mind the Goal
to which tend all these weary strivings and disciplinings of
the self.

And so, firmly attached to the Light that he has seen behind Vases
the phantoms of the senses, he must strive to live in the 2 3
Eternal, to realise in practice the stainless balance of the
Reality and cease to be whirled away by the pleasant or painful
“contacts of the senses.”

, Sensations will still come and go as before, but the inner
vision he has achieved will give him a new power of with-
drawing from them even while experiencing their pleasure and Verse 23-
pain. What characterises pleasure and pain is not any quality
in the sensations themselves so much as the psychic attraction

44 the YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

or revulsion that takes place within. When, through his grasp
of the Light of the Eternal, the disciple is able to master this
inner revulsion, he finds that the pain sensations, though
unchanged in themselves, have, income quite indescribable
way, become “different,” have lost their power to storm his
being or to lead him to blind reaction; though of rational
and controlled response he is more capable than ever before.
No longer are they masters, smashing their way brutally into
the consciousness, demanding instinctive reaction as a right,
but mere phenomena to be observed, studied and deliberately
attended to at will.

The teaching about the control of desire that was given at
the end of the third chapter now begins to bear fruit. Pre-
viously the disciple had no means of dealing with unwelcome
sensations but Stoic endurance of them, and no method of
resisting the surging waves of desire but the method of the
personal will, a method which must have failed him many
times and which is inadequate at best. Now, however, the
position is different. He has only to use his will to establish
himself in the inner fortress and, for the time being at least,
desires will drop dead before his eyes like butterflies killed by
frost as they emerge from a warm house. True, they will
rise again from the dead, and again have to be faced, but a
great gain has been achieved in that, instead of the grim
setting of the teeth of the personal will that was before neces-
sary, only that relatively small effort of will is needed which
may enable the disciple to take up his position in the fortress,
and, once he does so, victory is assured.

But any surging up of personal pride at this stage will ruin
all. Great as is the achievement that has been attained, the
power of slaying desire at will, much has yet to be accom-
plished before the Brahma-Nirvana , the utter “blowing out”
of personal desire in the calm Light of the Eternal, is reached,
before the disciple will become a Rishi and be able to echo the
triumphant words of the Buddha:

“Now art thou seen, O Builder. Never again shalt thou

THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION 45

build house for me. Broken are all the beams and sun-
dered lies the ridge-pole. My mind is set on the Eternal;
extinguished is all desire.” 1

Pride implies duality, and all duality must be rooted out Verse 25.
for ever. Therefore the disciple is reminded that it is not as
a personal refuge from the sorrows and pains of life that he
must enter the fortress. The Brahman is One and the same
in all, and only he who has developed the all-embracing com-
passion of a Bodhisattva can attain the Supreme Enlightenment
of a Buddha.

Nevertheless, great is the achievement of him who has got
even so far as this. If only personal pride can be suppressed
the disciple’s further progress is assured, for “the Brahma- Verse 26.
Nirvana lies near to those who know the Atman and who
are able in consequence, by the method outlined, to “disjoin
themselves” from desire and anger. The next chapter will
indicate a method which will enable the disciple to leap his
consciousness across the gap that still separates his conscious
mind from the Ocean of Light beyond. Here it should be
noted, however, that it is only to him who has reached this
point, to him who has seen through the inner door to the
Light on the Other Side, who has mastered his lower self and
who is “intent on the welfare of all beings,” that the Brahma-
Nirvana lies near at hand.” a

For him who has not trodden faithfully the Path so far, it

1 Dhammapada * 154.

2 Verse 27 does not refer to sitting in trance with the eyes turned upwards
(as practised by some hatha yogis ) but to the habitual attitude of the disciple
at this stage. Externalising the outer (sense) contacts — that is to say*
considering them as something external to himself— the disciple transfers
his eye* his centre of vision* to the symbolic spot between the. eyebrows.

Seeing with the ordinary eyes stands for the ordinary sense vision* seeing
with or in the heart for the eye of the individual Self, the manas * while
seeing from the spot between the eyebrows symbolises seeing with the
third eye* the eye of spiritual knowledge* the calm* all-illumining knowledge
of the buddki. Compare the symbolic description in the Mahaydna
scripture* the Saddharma Pundartka (introduction): “And at that moment
there issued a ray from within the circle of hair between the eyebrows
of the Buddha. It extended over eighteen hundred thousand Buddha
fields « . . and the beings in any of the six states became visible without
exception.” See also The Voice of the Silence : “Then from the heart
that Power shall rise into the sixth* the middle region* the place between

4 6 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

is quite useless to attempt to flash the consciousness into
Enlightenment by any meditative yoga for, if anything at all
results from his premature practice, it will only be in the nature
of dangerous mediumistic psychisms^ neurotic dissociations of
the personality, perhaps even insanity itself.

Verse 28. But for the fit disciple, for him who has mastered senses,
mind and buddhi , 1 who is free from all selfish aims, who has
cast away desire, fear and anger, desire for any enjoyment,
fear of any consequences and anger against those who obstruct
his progress, who has seen, though as yet only through the
“door,” that eternal Krishna who is the One Self of all, the
Verse 29. One for whom the Cosmic Sacrifice was undertaken, the
Great Lord of all the worlds, the Lover of all beings , for such
a one all doors stand open, his further progress is assured,
and speedily will he attain the Peace, the Peace that only
Enlightenment can give.

thine eyes* when it becomes the breath of the One Soul, the voice which
filleth all, thy Master’s voice.” Buddhi is, as it were, the breath of Mahat y
the One Soul.

1 The reference to the mastery of the buddhi should be understood
as anticipatory in the context. It will occur before liberation ( mukti ) is
attained.

CHAPTER VI

THE YOGA OF MEDITATION

By some mystics the Path has been divided into three stages,
called respectively the Way of Purification, the Way of Illumina-
tion, and the Way of Unity. The first six chapters of the Gita
correspond to some extent with the Way of Purification.
This sixth chapter marks the transition to the Way of Illumina-
tion, for, as was mentioned in the last, it sets forth the
technique of a mental discipline which is meant to transfer the
consciousness unbrokenly from its ordinary waking condition
to those higher levels which, up to this point, have been
working, as it were, behind the scenes, glimpsed perhaps in
occasional flashes of inspiration, but always as something
beyond, something outside the dominion of the will, coming
and going with the apparent caprice that veils an unknown law.

This technique is called “Dhyana yoga. ” the yoga by
meditation, and it corresponds, more or less, with the method
systematised by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. But, at the
very outset, it should be clearly understood for whom this
practice will give results and for whom it will not. This is
vitally important, since there are many who consider the
practice of meditation as the yoga par excellence and eagerly
seek to practise it without having trodden the all-important
earlier stages. As stated before, nothing but dangerous
mediumistic psychisms or neurotic dissociations of person-
ality can result from the practice of meditation without the
qualifications mentioned at the end of the last chapter . 1

1 This warning against the premature practice of meditation refers only
to the deliberate attempt to scale the Ladder of the Soul by a meditative
technique. Meditation on the symbol of the Supreme or on the figure
of the Teacher, reflection on the eternal truths about the Soul and the
world, and the calm analysis of one’s character are practices which are useful
and desirable at all stages of the Path.

47

48 . THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

• It is not he who gives up the fire and rites that symbolise
his social duties in order to plunge into meditation in some
Verse i. Himalayan cave who is the true yogi or samyasi, but he who
performs such actions as are enjoined by duty without any
selfish desire for fruit.

Verse 2. It is not work which has to be renounced but the “ sankalpa ,”

the formative will which seeks its own aims, an attitude that is
found in too many would-be yogis who seek in yoga, not the
Atman , but an enhanced power of moulding the environment
to a pattern more pleasing to the personal self.

For in truth it is in action, disinterested selfless action, that
Verse 3. the way to yoga lies. Forcible opening of a bud will not
produce a blossom, and it is only when the disciple is “ yoga -
rurha” is firmly established in the Path, that the serenity of
meditation can be a means of further advance.

It is easy and common to fancy oneself already at this point.
Verse 4. but, in truth, the stage is a very high one. Only he may be
said to be established in the Path who feels no more attach-
ment to the objects of the senses nor to self-seeking activity,
and who has thoroughly renounced the above-mentioned
desire to impose his own formative will upon the course of
events.

» Before the practice of meditation can be available to flash
tile consciousness now centred in the lower or personal self
Verse 5 across the gulf which separates it from the Atman , or higher
Self, it is essential that there shall be a harmony between the
two. If the self is in harmony with the Self, if it ceases to
exert its personal will, if its impulses are under control and it
is able to offer itself as an instrument through which the
Self can work, then the Atman is its friend, a source of inspira-
tion and guidance, the Inner Teacher of whom mention has
previously been made. But if the self is allowed to sink down
in inert depression, if it pursues its own aims and stands
proudly upon its own individual uniqueness, then, indeed, the
Verse 6. Atman is felt as something hostile. No more a source of
inspiration. It makes itself known as the mysterious source

THE YOGA OF MEDITATION

49

of misfortunes and sicknesses, of those “blows of Fate,”
in short, which are the teachers of the Law that all life is
one. 1

In order that the disciple may know whether he has truly
arrived at this stage or not, certain signs are given in the text
and, impartially scrutinising his own mind, he must see whether
they are present or not before he ventures farther. If the self Verse 7,
is really controlled and harmonious, then the Higher Self
will be felt always as a calm background to all the activities of
the mind. The “pairs of opposites” that torment other men
will have no power to disturb that inner serenity. The
gratifications of honour and the death-like sting of dishonour,
those infallible testers of claimants to the yogi’s title, can have
no effect on him whose only honour is the approval of his
Teacher, whose only dishonour is the shame of having subordi-
nated Self to self. Wealth is nothing to him who feels within
him the living water of the sacred wisdom, and the distinctions Verses
that mean so much to others are absurd in the eyes that have 8j 9 ‘
caught a glimpse of the One Life which is in all.

Now comes the time for the practice of meditative yoga and,
accordingly, the Gita proceeds to give some teachings about
the technique to be pursued. Essentially the method consists
of gaining such control over the mind-processes that they can
be stilled at will, thus enabling the consciousness to perceive
the Truth like a calm lake reflecting the eternal stars above.

Only brief indications are given in the text because the full
process cannot be set forth in writing. It varies for each
disciple and must be learnt from the Guru, who, as explained
before, is always available at this stage. It is true that there are
books which apparently give full instructions about the practice,
but their apparent fullness is misleading. It is easier to become
an artist by the study of a manual of oil-painting than to become
a yogi by the study of books on meditation, whether those

1 It was perhaps some realisation, of this truth (though from a different
angle of vision) that prompted the words of Jung: “Only when in dis-
harmony ... do we discover the Psyche^ we come upon some thing that
thwarts our will, which is strange and even hostile to us.”

50 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

books were written yesterday or whether they were written five
thousand years ago.

The few notes which are here given are intended merely
to help the reader to follow the text and by no means as a
sufficient guide to practice.

Verses The first necessity is a quiet place in which he may practise
x° s n. meditation undisturbed by friends or visitors, whose presence
would be apt to agitate the disciple’s mind with thoughts of
what so-and-so is thinking of him. This too is the meaning
of the phrase that the place should be “pure,” that is to say, it
should be free from any features likely to give rise to aesthetic
irritation or to distraction. Certain natural surroundings, such
as the banks of rivers, the tops of mountains, or the open
sky, are particularly helpful, as such surroundings exert a
calming influence on the mind and have, moreover, a symbolic
reference which works powerfully even if not consciously
attended to.

The directions about the seat ( asana ) are of an entirely prac-
tical nature. The seat should not be so high that there is risk
of falling if trance (or more likely sleep!) supervenes, nor so low
that there is danger from poisonous insects such as scorpions.
The other specifications are that it should be soft enough to
give ease of body and of such a nature that it will keep the yogi
off the damp ground, hence the use of a leather skin in days
when waterproof materials were unknown. More important
than these technicalities are the instructions that the disciple
should make his mind calm and free from hope and greed, that
is to say, from that attitude of wishing to grasp things to and
for oneself which is characteristic of the lower mind. 1

The next point is posture (also called asana). The postures
used in this yoga have nothing to do with bringing pressure

1 Compare the Buddhist practice of removing the five “Hindrances”
(sensual passion, ill-will, sloth and torpor, worry and perplexity) from the
mind before beginning the meditation (jhana) proper. Note also the
Buddhistic emphasis on the “Middle Path” in verses 16 and 17. It is
needless to say that the purpose in adducing these and other parallels is
not to suggest “borrowing” but to point out that the true yoga is the
same wherever it is found.

THE YOGA OF MEDITATION

5i

to bear on centres in the body, whether nervous or “occult.”

The essential is, as Patanjali said, that it should be steady and Verse 13.
pleasant. By pleasant, however, it is not meant that it should
be an arm-chair sort of attitude, as that would be more con-
ducive to sleep than to meditation. It must be one which can
be maintained for a long stretch without sensations of cramp or
fatigue, and at the same time it should be one which is conducive
to mental alertness, hence the traditional instruction to keep the
spine straight.

The direction of the gaze is another point on which there is
often confusion. A wandering gaze means a wandering mind,
and therefore the eyes are to be kept fixed in one direction. In
practice it has been found that the best way to do this is to
direct the eyes along the line of the nose and then to half-close
the eyelids. This should not be confused with the fixing of
the gaze between the eyebrows which is often referred to, and
which means that the centre of consciousness should be trans-
ferred to the buddhi which is often symbolised by that spot (see
note on page 45 of the previous chapter). “When one fixes
the thought on the mid-point between the two eyes, the Light
streams in of its own accord.” 1

Though not mentioned here (it has been mentioned in the
previous chapter) the breathing is also to be kept regular and
smooth, as there is a vital connection between the flow of
thoughts and the rhythm of the breath. To quote the same
Chinese book: “Because breath comes out of the heart, un-
rhythmical breathing comes from the heart’s unrest. There-
fore one must breathe in and out quite softly so that it remains

1 The Secret of the Golden Flower > a Chinese Taoist book of yoga, translated
by Wilhelm. Compare also the following quotation from the same book:
“Therefore the Master makes especially clear the method by which one
enters in the cultivation of life, and bids people look with both eyes at the
end of the nose, to lower the lids, to look within, sit quietly with upright
body and fix the heart on the centre in the midst of conditions [the “point
of view” or central reference-point, the higher ego]. Keeping the thoughts
on the space between the two eyes allows the Light to penetrate. There-
upon the spirit [buddhi] crystallises and enters the centre in the midst
of conditions. The centre in the midst of conditions is the lower Elixir-
field [the lower immortal or higher ego], the place of power [that is, the
seat of will].” The words in brackets have been added.

52 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

inaudible to the ear.” That is all : elaborate processes of
holding the breath and of breathing through alternate nostrils
( pranayama ) find no place in this yoga .

All these are the preliminaries and can be understood by
anyone. The heart of the yoga is more difficult and is what
cannot be taught in words. It is the “checking of all the
modifications of the mind,” the “holding of the heart to the
centre of the midst of conditions,” the “making of the mind
one-pointed” and its direction towards Him, the Atman, the
Light that “streams in of itself between the eyebrows.” This
is the essential thing, and produces the detachment from the
desire nature and the union with the buddhi ( buddhi yoga ) that
gives Enlightenment. The state is not one of mental vacuity,
as represented by some critics, and still less is it one which is
produced by some “occult” mechanism or other. The centre
of consciousness withdraws its attention from the world of
outer phenomena, whether of sense or of thought, passes
through the central point, which is itself, and emerges in the
spiritual world of the buddhi, which is in deepest truth the same
world seen in a different manner. It is the same world because
in truth all “worlds” are but illusions. All that exists, exists
within the One, and what we see as a world depends upon the
point of view from which we see; that which we see is One.
As the Maitri Upanishad puts it: “Thought is verily the world
and therefore should be purified with care. As one’s thou ght
is, so one becomes; this is the eternal mystery.” 1

It is no use attempting the specious clarity of an explanation
in modern terms. The process will be clear to him who is
ready for it. “This is the pathway to Brahman here in this
world. This is the opening of the door here in this world.
By it one will go to the other shore of the darkness. When the
five sense knowledges cease together with the (lower) mind,
and the buddhi (here the higher mind) also stands motionless,
that they say is the highest Path.” a

1 Maitri Upanishad , vi 3 34.

* Maitri , vi 3 30. Compare also the words of Hermes: “Whenever I see
within myself the Simple [i.e. unitary as opposed to multiple] Vision

THE YOGA OF MEDITATION

53

Two absolute essentials are brahmacharya , or control of the Verse 14.
sex-impulse, and utter purity of aspiration. Brahmacharya
must not be confused with mere ascetic celibacy. It is die
control of the sex-impulses that is meant and not their mere
inhibition, a control that will take varying forms under differing
circumstances. There is no merit in the sexlessness of the
eunuch, whether his castration be a physical or a mental one,
and Hindu tradition is right in affirming that the householder
whose sex-life is controlled is as truly a Brahmachari as the
ascetic who observes the vow of total sex-abstinence. In any
case it must be borne in mind that the inner world of sex-
phantasy is as important as the outer one of procreation.
Without control of sex, in both its inner and its outer mani-
festations, it is safer to play with dynamite than to practise the
yoga of meditation.

Turning now to the other essential, the aspiration must be
purely directed towards the One Self, as, under any other
circumstances, the practice of meditation will give rise to Verse 14.
visions and hallucinations which will mislead the disciple and
plunge him into a whirlpool of psychic illusions that may even
delude him into fancying himself an Avatara, or other great
personage . 1

Purity of aspiration and the proximity of a wise Guru are
the only safeguards against such delusions. It must never be
forgotten that visions and other psychic experiences prove
absolutely nothing whatever. True knowledge is possessed
by the Atman alone, and no dualistic knowing can be relied on,
whether the senses which mediate it be the outer or the inner
ones. It is the grossest folly to suppose that a vision, say, of
the crucifixion of Jesus, or the birth of Krishna, is, as such,
any testimony to the historicity of those events. Even if

brought to birth ... I have passed through myself into a Body that can
never die. And now I am not what I was before but I am bom in Mind.

The way to do this is not taught” (from the Secret Sermon on the Mountain .

The part in brackets is added).

x Such delusions are common in India and elsewhere* and are by no
means always due to deliberate imposture. Often the Avatara is his own
first victim.

54 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

it were, it could prove nothing of importance, as it could
no more reveal the inner significance of those events than
could the physical vision of those who witnessed them
with their bodily eyes. In all events it is the Atman that
is of importance, and it is the knowledge of the Atman alone
that is the true knowledge. Therefore is it said that he alone
Verse 30. is safe “who sees Me, the Atman , in all beings and all beings
in Me.”

Hence all the emphasis on the Self, the Atman. The yogi
must be united with the Atman, with thought fixed on the
Atman, absorbed in the yoga of the Atman, seeing the Atman
by the Atman. It cannot be too emphatically stated that no
true yoga is possible by the unaided personal will.. Thought
may be stilled to the point of trance, but unless the self is
surrendered to the Atman there can be no yoga in the true sense
of the word. True, the preliminary effort at concentration
is made, from the lower level, but the complete stilling of the
mind by sheer will is like balancing a pyramid upon its apex,
a feat of balance which, even if accomplished, is so precarious
that no useful result can be achieved.

The true concentration comes when the disciple is able to
surrender himself to, and identify himself with, the Atman,
that Self which is present as the unchanging Witness of every
thought and of every sensation. It is only when this is achieved
Verse 19. that the mi n d of the yogi becomes steady “like a lamp in a
windless place,” 1 a state which, to anyone who has seriously
tried to concentrate from the lower level alone, will always
seem an almost fantastically difficult feat of mental acrobatics.
The true process is certainly hard enough, but it, is infinitdy
easier than the lower one, failure to achieve which is a source
of depression to so many.

It is because of this impossibility of achieving success in
meditation without some perception of the Higher Self that

1 The point of this simile — evidently much older than the Gita— is
often missed. It is useless to try to make the flame steady in a windy
place. The mind must withdraw to a region where the winds of desire
«« Tnnsrer nlav before it can become more than momentarily steady.

THE YOGA OF MEDITATION

55

it is only in this sixth chapter that instructions for its practice
are given. Up to this point “action is called the means,” verse 3.
that is to say, the means of getting a preliminary perception
of the higher level of consciousness, the buddhi , by which the
yoga is to be achieved. 1

“Little by little let him gain tranquillity by means of the Verse 25
buddhi , firmly adhered to,” and thus, securely seated in the
Atman , to which the buddhi is a bridge, it will be possible
for him to bring all thoughts to a standstill and yet remain
in a stable state of serenely blissful consciousness, “which
having attained, he thinketh that there is no greater gain Verse 22
possible,” and which all the assaults of pain and sorrow can
never shake.

“That should be known as yoga, this disconnection from Verse 2 ;
the union with pain.” Profound words, which gain an added
profundity when we remember the teaching of the Buddha
that all experience is (in itself) dukkha, painful by reason of
its finite and transitory nature. This “disconnection” from
union with all finite experience is the secret of successful yoga. Verse 2;
or rather, it is half the secret, the other half being the atma
sanstha , the abiding in the Atman . The two processes,
negative and positive, go on side by side, as a man climbing
a ladder loosens his hold on one rung while simultaneously
attaching him self to the next.

These two processes are the “detachment and practice”
referred to in verse 35. Without their aid there is no possi-
bility of stilling the restless and fickle mind and of climbing
up the ladder. For countless ages the mind has been turned
outwards and has been given a free rein to attach itself to
objects of desire, and it is not to be expected that it will be
possible to wrench it away from them at once. A bamboo
that has long borne a weight will not be straightened merely
by its removal; strenuous effort will also be required to
neutralise the acquired bend. So with the mind; long bent
by the forces of desire, it must first be detached from them

1 See Chapter II.

56 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

and then, by constant practice, united with that which is
higher than itself.

This practice is not a matter of an hour, or even of several
hours, of daily meditation. Throughout the day (and even,
in a sense, throughout the hours of sleep as well) constant
effort must be made to retain in the consciousness as much
as possible of the detachment and insight that were achieved
during the meditation period. Throughout the day the
disciple must hold on firmly to whatever degree of realisation
he was able to gain in those calm hours, for a short period of
uncontrolled thought, an hour of despondency, or even five
minutes of anger, will undo all that he has accomplished, and,
like the web of Penelope, what was woven in the morning will
be unravelled by next day.

It is a long and uphill struggle, and one which, to the disciple.
Verse 37. will often seem hopeless. Progress is slow and attainment
looms far away. The night of Death may come before the
haven is reached, but he must not despair, for the Path is one
Verse 45. that must be trodden through many lives, and he may respose
serenely in the arms of the Cosmic Law, knowing that not
Verse 43. the slightest effort is ever wasted, and that, like a man com-
pleting on the morrow the unfinished task of to-day, he will
be able to begin in his next life at the point where he left off
in this.

If only the effort is steady his ultimate triumph is secure.
Verse 44. and at last, like a tree long bound by winter frosts, bursting
suddenly into glorious bloom, the arduous struggles of many
lives will bear fruit and he will burst into the Light and attain
Verse 28. the Brahma-sansparsha , the contact with the Eternal, no
longer sensed as a vague background, no longer even glimpsed
fitfully through the inner door, but felt in actual contact,
contact that will drench the soul in bliss.

Verse 29. Gone is the sense of a separate finite self, with its individual
gains and losses, its personal hopes and fears, and in its place
comes the experience of the One Atman abiding in all beings,
of all beings as eddies in that all-pervading ocean of bliss.

THE YOGA OF MEDITATION

57

This stage may be reckoned as the third great landmark
on the Path. , The first was the Entry on the Path; the second,
the consciousness of the Divine Birth in the heart; and now,
with the overwhelming perception of the unity of all life in
the One Self, the third, termed in some traditions the Mystic
Marriage, may be said to have been accomplished. It is the
fifth (in some traditions sixth) or Dhyana Paramita of the
Buddhists, after which the shining path of Prajna lies open
before the disciple’s feet. Thrice great is he who has travelled
thus far. The bridge which separated self from Self has been
crossed, and now no obstacle remains to prevent the Divine
Light from irradiating the personality with Its wondrous
rays.

Wherever he may be, and whatever he may be doing, the
yogi is now established iB the ever-living Divine Unity. The Verse 31.
touch of the Eternal Krishna has awakened the flame of love
in his heart, love the great liberator, the breaker-down of all
barriers. Borne out of himself on its rushing wave, he sees
no more himself or others, but everywhere and in all things
the blue form of Krishna flashes forth. Beneath the frowning
brows of his foe no less than within the smiling glances of his
friend he perceives the gleaming eyes of his Divine Lover,
and he pours himself forth in utter worship of the Unchanging
One seated within the hearts of all.

Worship is a word which conjures up before us ideas of
hy mns and formal offerings, of churches and temples and of
rewards in heaven; but the worship which the disciple now
offers is something quite different. It is the worship which
gives itself because it can do no less, the worship of self-
forgetful service compelled by the sovereign power of love.

What need has he of temples when every form enshrines
his Lord, and how shall he withhold his service when he sees
the Divine beauty distorted by the gloomy ugliness of the
world, the Divine bliss masked by the myriad sorrows of men?

Great is the tapasvi , the ascetic who disciplines himself; Verse 46.
great xhejndm standing firm in the calm knowledge of Reality;

58 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

great, too, is the man of action, for he is the instrument, albeit
unconscious, of the unresting cosmic tides. But greater than
all is the yogi, for he combines in himself all three. United
with the Divine Lover in his hears;, he sees Him as the One
Self in all and, offering his disciplined personality on the altar
of self-sacrifice, he serves unrestingly the Wisdom-Love that
ever plans the welfare of the worlds. “Sa me yuktatamo
matah — He in my opinion is the greatest yogi of all.”

CHAPTER VII

THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

With this chapter the Way of Illumination, the Prajna Path
of the Buddhists, commences, and the glorious Knowledge
dawns on the disciple’s inner eye, the Knowledge “which. Verse 2.
having known, there is nothing more here that needeth to be
known.” It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that
the actual Knowledge is or can be described in the verses that
follow. As a two-dimensional photo is to its three-dimensional
original, or as a map is to the actual countryside, so is this or
any other description to that wondrous Knowledge, and none
should fancy that a grasp of the statements set forth is the
same thin g as the illumination itself.

At the very outset it is desirable to dwell for a moment on Verse 3.
the extreme rarity of this Knowledge. The vast majority of
men know nothing of its existence, and though a few by
strenuous effort have succeeded in establishing themselves
upon the Path that leads to it, yet, at any given time, only one
or two g ain it in its fullness. This is not said in order to
depress the disciple, but in order to keep him humble now that
he is on the Path of Illumination. Let him not fancy himself
a God because he has attained a measure of Light, nor think !
that he has scaled the eternal Snows because he stands upon
a foot-hill peak.

What is this wondrous Knowledge that is now to be
described? It is the knowledge of Krishna, the Undying
Atman, the Stainless Eternal Being that lies behind all change.

This should be borne in mind in all that follows, for though
there are many who worship Krishna, yet few of them, though
they may be on the Path, are those who know His Essential
Being. Who or what Krishna in essence is, is what is ;

59 1

60 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

attempted to be set forth in this and the four succeeding
chapters. Here, more than ever, must the disciple beware
of words, for, as the Upanishad says: “It is not known by
him who knows It though known by him who knows It not.” 1
The knowledge that can be expressed in words is not the true
Knowledge. The description that is given is useless if inter-
preted by the intellect alone, and its words are but a s hining
curtain through which the disciple must pass to “That from
which all words, together with the mind, turn back unable to
attain.”

Before the disciple can attain to the comprehension of that
Supreme Unity he has to understand the twofold nature of
Verses the Manifested Universe. In all that is manifested, whether

4; 5 ’ gross or subtle, whether living beings or what we call “dead”

matter, there are two aspects which must be understood.
These are the ever-changing forms and the unchanging
“consciousness” which supports them. Whether the forms
of matter, the “five elements,” 8 or whether the more subtle
forms of thought, all form is but a transient play that is upheld
in the light of consciousness, the higher or living (jlva-bhuta)
nature. Apart from this witnessing consciousness no forms
could exist at all.

But, it may be asked, what about “brute matter,” as it is
sometimes called, the sheer “stuff” of which the world is made?
The answer, an answer more acceptable to the ordinary man
now that even physical scientists have reduced matter to
“waves of probability,” is that there is no stuff in that sense
at all. Analyse matter to its furthest limit and it evaporates,
as it were, or is resolved into something incomprehensible
but non-material. It is in fact true, as Plotinus said, that
matter in itself is sheer negation; it is the unmanifest sub-
stratum of the ever-changing forms in “consciousness.”

This is a subject that will have to be further dealt with later,
but here it is sufficient to know that these two, consciousness

1 Kena Upanishad 3 U 3 3.

3 On “consciousness” see Appendix A; on “matter” Appendix B; and
on the “five elements” Appendix H,

THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE 61

and form, 1 * are the womb in which all beings are bom. But Verses
beyond this duality is That with which Krishna here identifies 6 ‘ 7 ‘
Himself, the Marvellous, Incomprehensible One, not the
blank absolute unity of (intellectual philosophy, but the rich
and unspeakable Infinite Wonder which is the ground of all,
of consciousness and form alike, on Whom all this is threaded
like pearls upon a string.

This is the essential being of Krishna, to which He says so
few attain. Words fall away, useless and empty labels, and
even the mind, the line of plummet of the universe, dizzied
in ceaseless whirlings, sinks and is dumb before that viewless
Wonder, the Void which is the Full, the Full which is the Void.

The lips of those who have known It are sealed with reverent
awe. Knowing they know It not, they cease “to sink the
string of thought into the Fathomless.” Let us bow down in
awe before that Sacred Mystery and keep our words for realms
where words can live.

But since it is just this fathomless Mystery that must be
known, some ladder must be found, some means of knowing
That which the mind cannot reach. And so Sri Krishna goes
on to teach that, though the manifested cosmos is illusion, yet
is it a Divine illusion, and at its throbbing heart stands He
Himself.

The disciple must in all things — in earth and fire and water. Verses
ih sun and moon and in all splendid things, in men, strong, 8-12 '
wise, ascetic, and in all living beings — seek for the Essence, for
that which makes them what they are. Undistracted by the
accidents of outer form, the passing phantom shapes which
are the great illusion, he must hold firm to that essential nature
of which the forms are crude embodiments. For those
essential natures are the Divine Ideas, Ideas which live for
ever, shaping all things from within, “moulding blind mass
to form.” *

The eye of flesh sees but the changing forms, and, holding

1 United on the level of the Mahat Atman-

s Light of Asia.

62 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Verses fast to them, is utterly deluded by the false shows of things.

1 3> J 4- Like Plato’s dwellers in the cave, men see only the shifting
shadows, on the wall. They cannot see the Light, nor yet those
truer forms from which the shadows come. This Divine
illusion is indeed hard to cross, because long ages spent in
grappling with material things have taught our minds to dwell
exclusively on what is without. A doctor, trained to view all
bodies in terms of health and disease, cannot with ease see with
the artist’s vision, and we, who owe our mastery over nature to
this fidelity to outward fact, cannot at once pass to the higher
vision and reverse our customary modes of thought.

This reversal is th cjnana-yoga, and, as the Katha Upanishad
says, “some few wise men, seeking the Immortal, with eyes
turned in, saw the Undying Atman .” The disciple must avert
his gaze from the manifold illusion. In its place he must see
“Me” the Divine idea of Fire in all things fiery, “Me” the
Divine Strength in all things strong, “Me” the Divine Life in
all that lives and breathes.

Verse 15 . Only by turning thus to the Eternal Atman can the illusion
be crossed. Those who look outward, who embrace the
illusions, the Headers of the Asurik path , 1 can find no foothold
in the cosmic flux and are tossed hither and thither on its
unresting tides.

Verse 16. In conttast to these are those who tread the inner Path, they
who serve 2 Krishna. They are divided into four classes,
graded according to the degree of perception they have attained.
First come the “drfa,” those who have seen that all life is but
sorrow.

“Ache of the birth, ache of the helpless days.

Ache of hot youth and ache of manhood’s prime;

Ache of the chill grey years and choking death
These fill your piteous time.” 8

Seeing that life is transient, that all things pass and die, they

1 The Asurik path is the outgoing “pravritti” path, of which more will
be said later. See Chapter XVI.

2 Bhajate, usually rendered worship, comes from the root bhaj, to serve.

* Light of Asia.

THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE 63

turn from them in sorrow and seek consolation from That
which is beyond all suffering, the Undying Krishna, beyond
the reach of change.

This is the first stage, the first of the Buddha’s four noble
Truths, but it is the first only because it is based on mere recoil
from suffering. Insight has shown the disciple that life is shot
through and through with sorrow, its so-called joys mere cheats,
and so he sadly turns away his eyes. Were life to be more
joyful he would not thus have turned his face to Krishna.

The next class is the “ jijnasu ,” the inquirer, the seeker after
knowledge. Knowledge gives mastery and power, and,
seeing that life is sorrow, he seeks the understanding that
shall master it, the knowledge of the causes of men’s woe.

Next comes the “ artharthi ,” he who seeks the Real. 1 Know-
ing that it is the outgoing forces of desire that are the sources of
all sorrow, knowing, too, that all manifested life is transient by
its very nature, he turns his back on all desire for anything that is
manifest and seeks the anamayam padam, the Sorrowless State
of Liberation, lifted on high above the bitter waters of life.

But beyond this stage there lies another, the stage of the Verses
jndni, the Wise One, he who treads the Path of perfect self- I7-I9 ‘
surrender. For the seeker after Liberation there is a dualism
between the world and the Nirvana and he rejects the one to
cleave unto the Other. But the jnani is one who sees that all
duality is false. “Here,” as “There,” his opened eyes see
nothing but the One. He seeks no liberation for himself
“beyond the flaming ramparts of the world,” for he has seen
that “all is Vasudeva ” 4 and, in the words of the Upanishad ,
he knows that “what is There is here; what is not here is
nowhere at all.”

This glorious realisation, as rare as it is wonderful, comes as

1 This term “artharthi” is often misunderstood and applied to him who
seeks for wealth or worldly objects. The order of the words in the verse
is sufficient to show that this is not the true meaning. The artharthi is
not he who seeks for the artha (wealth) which is anartha (“ilith”)* but
he who seeks the true Wealths the Paramartha , which is mukti or liberation.

2 A patronymic of Krishna, but here signifying “the Light which dwells
in all ”

64 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

the fruit of countless lives of effort. Noble are all who tread
the Path, but noblest of all is he, for his realisation leads him
to unite himself with the One Self in all, and, seeking no
selfish gain, he rejects not the bittenwaters of sorrow but rather
seeks to sweeten them in service of his Lord. Not his own
self but the One Self is dear to him, therefore he is supremely
dear to Krishna. Because he knows that naught but Krishna
is, he seeks no gain or Goal but to serve Efim. Like Krishna
Himself, he pours himself forth in sacrifice and love. He is
made one with Krishna’s very Atman , and, knowing himself
to be the One in all, he is established in the highest Path.

Verse 20. Few there are who reach these lofty heights. To give one-
self utterly, caring for no reward, is not for those whose hearts
are clouded by desire. The worship of the majority of men is
not the true worship of Krishna even when they use His name
in their prayers. Seeking to gain some good for their own
selves they worship various Gods “according to their natures.”

What are these Gods and what the nature of their worship?
In all manifested nature there is, as we have seen, duality of
life and form. Nowhere is there life without some form and
nowhere, also, form without the Life. The powers of Nature,
which to modern eyes are but so many dead “forces,” are in
truth embodiments of that one Living Power which wields the
universe in Its unceasing play. They are not “persons,” but
in ancient times they were given personal form to symbolise
their living nature . 1 Indr a, Agni and other Vedic Gods are the
personified symbols of the Living Power ensouling Nature’s
“forces,” a Power no more to be identified with the physical
embodiments than is the Life ensouling us to be identified with
our physical frames . 11

Modem man seeks to gain benefit from these Powers of
Nature by an understanding of their outward being’s laws, but

1 Moreover, it is a characteristic of psychic Powers that, when they
manifest, at least to men, it is as personal or quasi-personal beings that they
do so. “Personification” is a characteristic of the Psychic realms.

2 The modem notion that because the winds and waves move according
to law they are therefore “dead” is wrong. Do not our own bodies move
by law as well? The fact is that nowhere in all the universe is there any

THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

65

ancient man sought the same ends by different means. By
various rituals he attuned his consciousness to the Life that
ensouls all Nature and sought to control her powers from
wit hin by lending his hitman imagination and will to their
living but will-less being. *

Acting in this way, it is possible to obtain from the “Gods” Verses
the benefits desired, but that is so because beneath the varied 2Ij 22 ‘
powers is the One Power, the Cosmic Harmony known in the
Vedic age as “rita.” Krishna it is who, from behind the
scenes, makes steady the faith of such worshippers and by His
Eternal Laws secures to each the fruits of all his deeds.

All things are possible of attainment if the right means are Verse 23.
known, but, though all things are possible, yet must their price
be paid, for in all things the law of karma rules and action and
reaction are inseparable. Therefore it is said that the fruits
of all such worship are but finite and “to the Gods will go their
worshippers; My devotees come unto Me.”

Let it not be thought, however, that this “Me” is but one Verse 24.
God among the Gods. Krishna is the Unmanifest Eternal,
imperishable, supreme. Useless to set up some one Figure,
even His Figure, as Supreme when all the time conceiving Him
as one among the many, thinking that, since He is “our” God,

He must be chief of all. All that is manifest is relative and
dependent. In the manifested plurality all interact, none is
Supreme. The Eternal One is never one among the many:
always He is the One without a second, hidden, unborn, Verse 25.
beyond the changing flux. Not in the manifested world can
He be found. Deluded by the great illusion of plurality, men
seek Him fruitlessly, saying “Lo here! Lo there!” — but all they
find is some one thing among the many, searching in this way
they can never find the One . 1

form that is not subject to Law, and nowhere, either, is there anything
that is “dead”; for all forms move and have their being in the one all-
pervading Life.

The Vedic Gods have also another aspect* in which they are the symbols
of the various levels of the Consciousness* but that is not the aspect with
which we are here concerned.

1 Compare the saying of Eckhart: “Some people expect to see God
as they would see a cow.”

66 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Seeing only the “ pairs of opposites” men walk the earth
deluded. Whirled about by the forces of attraction and
repulsion, seeing only the many, they go “from death to death.”
They cannot know the Deathless Being of Krishna, for none
save the One can ever know the One.

Only by the yoga that seeks the One at once within 1 and beyond
the many, can He be found, and, as the Upanishad says,
“having known Him, one crosses beyond all death, there is no
other Path for going there.” 2 Fire of the fires. Life of the
lives. Light of the lights, He stands beyond all forms; past,
present, future — all are one to Him.

This knowledge, however, can only come to him whose
Verse 28. sins are at an end. Sin does not mean the infringement of
any arbitrary code of morals worked out by human reason or
set forth in “holy” books. Sin is the assertion of the separate
self, the making of difference where, in truth, none exists.
Sin is the central ignorance which sees the separate, personal
self as real and seeks its own gain though the whole world
perish. 3 To this assertion of the personal self all sins are due,
and only he can win the Truth who has renounced such sin
and whose pure selfless deeds are all directed to the service of
the One who dwells in all.

Verses . They, the selfless ones, refuged in the One Self, strive for
28 “ 30 ' the liberation of that Self from the illusion of birth and death.
They are the true mumukshus, or seekers after liberation, for
they scorn to seek a liberation for their own selves alone, know-
ing that all that lives is One. They also are the txus jnariis, for
they know the primordial Unmanifested Trinity, the one
Eternal Brahman and Its aspects, Adhyatma , the Unmanifested

1 Note the contrast between among the many and within the many.
Even the word “within 5 J is not strictly correct, for, as we shall see in
Chapter IX, He is not within the many but the many within Him. Never-
theless, at this stage, it is as within them that He win be perceived.

2 Shwetdshwatara Upanishad , vi, 15.

8 This is the meaning of the Buddha’s teaching that as long as there
is belief in atma (here meaning separate self) there can be no Nirvana.
Christians also teach that salvation from sin is found only in Christ, the
meaning of which is clear to those who know that Christ is the One Self
in all, and therefore is it said that “No man cometh unto the Father but

Tver M* »

THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE 67

Seif (the Shanta Atman of the Kathopanishad) and the Un-
manifested Mulaprakritiy here referred to as the totality of
(potential) action. 1

But this knowledge is npt enough in itself. The Three are
eternally the same. They dwell beyond the “Abyss” which
separates the manifest from the Unmanif est., and he who
treads the “selfish” Path seeks but to lose himself for ever
in their unchanging timeless bliss. Not so the follower of
Krishna, he who treads the Path of Sacrifice and seeks to
gather up in the Treasure-House (cf. chapter is, v. 18) the
pearls which have been buried in the Cosmic Ocean, to reunite
the scattered limbs of the dismembered Osiris.

For him the knowledge of the transcendent Eternal is not
enough. There are not two realities, Nirvana and the world,
for all is Vasudeva and what is “There” is likewise “here” as
well. He who would tread the Path and knows the Self, not
in its own eternity alone but here amid the changing play of
life and form, sacrificed here upon the cross of matter, becomes Verse
one of the “fishers of men” spoken of by Christ. Others
may scorn the world as mere illusion, and, at the death hour,
wing their way across the blackness, alone to the Alone. He,
however, the fully harmonised one, seeing the One here in
the midst of the many, knows no black gulf of death, but in
full Light of Consciousness gamers the fruits of the Divine
Adventure, and, in the words of the Isha Upaniskad: “ Avidyayd
mrityum tirtvd , vidyayd’mritamashnute — Having crossed over
death by knowledge of the many, by knowledge of the One
he gains the Deathless State.”

1 For explanations of the technical terms used in these last two verses
see the next chapter.

CHAPTER VIII

THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE ETERNAL

The farther the disciple proceeds upon the Path the clearer
the Light that comes flooding into his heart. The last chapter
ended with the mention of some technical terms which are
now seen to refer to the Ladder of Beings the Rainbow Bridge,
down which the Soul has come and up which it must return.
This Ladder has been described in various terms in all the
ancient traditions, for instance as the Sephirothal Tree of the
Kabala, but the disciple who has reached this stage can read
the various symbols that the Teachers have employed, for the
reality behind them all is one.

Beyond all and alone stands the Supreme Eternal, the
Verse 3. Imperishable Brahman , dark in utter mystery, the Root
of all that is, was, or shall ever be. Neither subject nor
object, neither knower, knowing, or known can exist in the
unspeakable Being of That which is beyond all names.

All manifestation springs from the self-limitation of that
Brahman. Brahman as subject sees Itself as object and thus
we get the first, though still unmanifest, duality. The essential
nature ( swabhava ) of the One as transcendent Subject, here
called adhyatma, separates out, as it were, leaving the other
aspect of the Brahman to stand as the eternal Object, Mula-
prakriti . 1 This Mula-prakriti, the unmanifest basis of all
objectivity, is, from its very nature, the source of all the
manifested Many. Reflecting as it does the Light of the One
Atman , It is the root of all plurality. In Its dark being lie
all the seeds of action, seeds that, under the Sun’s bright rays,
will shoot and grow into the great World Tree.*

1 For a fuller account of this cosmic evolution see Chapter XIII and
Appendix Fj see also the diagram in Appendix E.

3 For an interesting parallel in the Kabala see Appendix F.

£0

THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE ETERNAL 69

Because it is thus the root of all action, the Gita terms it
“Karma” but it should be borne in mind that it is not any
sort of primordial “brute matter” existing in its own right, as
speculated on by nineteenth-century scientists, but merely the
objective aspect of the Brahman , the unmanifest Substratum
in which forms live and move and have their being. It cannot
stand alone apart from the Brahman of Which it is an aspect.

It was a failure to perceive this that led the later Sdnkhyas
into dualism. Remove the dualistic knowing 1 and the Mula-
prakriti collapses into the Brahman of which it is but the
appearance. If the Brahman is to appear as an object at all
it is only as the Mula-prakriti that It can so appear.

Passing now to the manifested Cosmos, we find that the Verse
interaction of these two, the Unmanifested Subject and the
Unmanifested Object, gives rise, on the one hand, to the
changing world of forms, the “perishable nature” ( adhihhuta ),
and, on the other hand, to the witnessing Consciousness, the
One Life, the adhidaiva , termed in the Kathopanishad the
Great or Mahat Atman*

Then comes the adhiyajha , the Mystic Sacrifice by which
Krishna, the One Life, unites Himself with the passing forms.

Just as the Unmanifested Two find their unity in the Supreme
Unmanifested Brahman , so do the manifested Life and Form
find union in the sacrificial act of Krishna. This is that
Mystic Sacrifice mentioned in the Rig-Veda in which the
Purusha was dismembered to create the world of beings, and
this the crucifixion of the Christ, pouring out His life-blood
on the Cross of matter, redee ming thus the duality of the world.

The One Self, seeing Itself reflected in the myriad forms,

1 This dualistic “knowing” is, however, not individual but cosmic. It
springs from that mysterious extra-cosmic Something called by various
schools the Will of God, Ilia (the Divine play). Eternal Law, or Maya \

All these names express some aspects of it, but, being beyond the manifested
Cosmos, it is beyond the reach of words. Its nature is too mysterious to
be speculated on, but its reality is proved by the fact of manifestation
having taken place at all. In attempting to describe it Shankara was
forced into paradox and contradiction, while the Buddha preferred to
keep silent altogether.

2 Also known in some traditions as the third Logos.

70 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

willed by Its mystic yoga to identify Itself with them and
share their limitations. Thus were the individuals formed,
the central being of men, sometimes termed (higher) manas ,
sometimes ahankara , 1 the scattered Jimbs of the Divine Osiris.
These are the Immortal Sparks, the S hini ng Threads, dying
in myriad forms and yet, unseen, passing from life to life in
age-long immortality.

This “Sacrifice” has also been described in the Poemandres
of Hermes Trismegistus:

“He (the Cosmic Man), beholding the form like to Himself
existing in Her water, loved it and willed to live in it; and with
the will came act, and so He vivified the form devoid of reason.
And Nature took the object of her love and wound Herself
completely round Him, and they were intermingled; for they
were lovers. And this is why beyond all creatures on the
earth man is twofold; mortal because of body, but, because of
the essential Man, immortal.”

, On account of this twofold nature of man it is of great
importance that the disciple should at all times, and especially
at the critical hour of death, identify himself with what is
immortal in him, should cleave to the Undying Krishna in his
heart and not to the mortal form which constitutes his body.

Verses Imagination is the power which wields the universe. From
imagination sprang the dualism of the Cosmos and through
imaginative union came about the Mystic Sacrifice. As a man
thinketh, so shall he become. Therefore is it of such supreme
importance how the disciple uses his imagination. Identifying
him self in thought with the perishable body he shares the
latter’s death, while if he can unite himself with what is
Deathless he will partake of immortality.

1 Ahankara , literally the I-maker, is a term that can be applied either
on the level of the personal self or on that of higher Self, the true individual.
In later writings it is usually employed in the lower sense, but in the Gita
manas is generally used for the lower self and ahankara for the higher.
The term higher manas is not used in the Gita, though, as previously
mentioned, it is referred to in Maim Upanishad (vi, 34) as snddha (pure)
manas. The term ahankara has the same significance, but emphasises not
its cognitive but its ego nature.

THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE ETERNAL 71

There is no appeal here to the authority of ancient texts.

It is plain fact of which, as the Gita says, “there is no doubt
at all.” To him who doubts it only needs to say: “Make
yourself ready, try it and reap the fruits.” Try it and see,
you are the immortal Spirit: “Thou wast not bom for
death, immortal bird! No hungry generations tread thee
down.”

But, as in the ancient myth, the elixir of immortality must
be churned from out the Cosmic Ocean. How will the Soul’s Verse 8.
immortality benefit him who thinks he is the body? It is
useless to rely on any mere death-bed thoughts. Only he
who in life “strives with continual practice” to know himself
as that which is immortal can meet the illusions of the death
hour with unruffled mind and place his being in the Deathless
Spirit, treading the Bridge of Souls to the Eternal.

Five are the stages on the Rainbow Bridge, five gates of Verse 9.
consciousness through which the soul must pass. First
comes the Ancient Seer, 1 the world creator, Brahma the
Demiurge, red-coloured with desire. It is the Light we know
as the desire-consciousness, the Light that shines through
the senses, inner as well as outer, for this it is that makes
the world of beings, and from this point must the ascent
commence.

Next comes the Inner Ruler, smaller than the small. This
is the inner “Point” mentioned in chapter five, the Higher
Self, s hinin g in the pure Mind. He sows the field and
He reaps the harvest; happy the man ruled by that Inner
Lord!

1 The use of the word “kauri” seer or poet (also applied to the poet-seers
of the Vedas) y shows how essentially the creative process is conceived as
one of imagination. This level is the same as that of the Gnostic Ilda-
Baoth. The word Brahma is ..also used in another sense (e.g. verse 16
of this chapter), where it stands for the highest level of manifested being,
the plane of the Creative World, the Cosmic ideation. There need be no
confusion about this double use. Both signify the creative Power, in the
one case on the level of unity, the manifested unity; in the other case on
the level of plurality, the plurality which is the world of beings. There
is a reference in Shwetashwatara Upanishad (v, 2) to “the reddish-coloured
seer who was engendered in the beginning.” On the five levels see
Appendix E.

72 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Above this comes the Buddhi, All-Supporter, the luminous
Sea in which the separate Sparks are all united in one Living
Flame. It is the Light that shines above the Mind, uniting
individual points of view in one ajl-seeing Wisdom. It is
the vestibule that leads beyond to the Great Being of un-
imagined form, the Cosmic Ideation which is Krishna, 1 the
farthest edge of manifested being. This is the Plane of the
Creative Word, and he who has attained this lofty height can
hear the thunders of the mystic Sea that ebbs and flows
throughout the Universe, “and hear its mighty waters, rolling
evermore.”

Beyond it lies the dark unfathomed mystery of Unmani-
fested Nature, and beyond again burns the White Light, the
Sun beyond the Darkness, the calm and peaceful Light of the
Unmanifested Atman.

Beyond once more is the Supreme Eternal, the Nameless
Mystery symbolised by the one-syllabled Om . 2 , He who can
tread the Path of Consciousness, sinking the senses in the
mind, the mind in buddhi, buddhi in the “Great Self,” and then
go on Beyond, enters the bliss of that Supreme Eternal and
comes no more to birth.

This description of the Path has been taken from the Katha
Upanishad, but the same thing has been stated here in more
Verses symbolic terms. The gates of the senses are to be closed by
I2jI3 ‘ withdrawal of the consciousness from them and the lower
personality (the mind) to be merged in the higher Self, here
called the heart. Then, as Shankara puts it, “ascending
through the subtle path to the head,” the yogi is to establish

1 Only in one aspect of course. Throughout the Gita, Sri Krishna
identifies Himself with different levels at different places.

* A lot of nonsense has been written in the West about Om and its
‘Vibrations.” Some of it is now filtering back to India and I read in
a Hindi religious magazine of how a “Western scientist” had shattered a
glass tumbler with the vibration aroused by chanting Om and only just
stopped in time to avoid disintegrating the Bank of England or some such
place! The true meani ng of the word should be studied in the Mandukya
Upanishad . H. P. Blavatsky, who was not averse to writing about
“vibrations” when it suited her, when asked by her pupils as to the correct
pronunciation of Om replied: “Aum means good actions, not merely lip-
sound. You must say it in deeds.”

THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE ETERNAL 73

himself in the buddhi, here termed the “breath of the Atman”
From here, contemplating the symbol of the Eternal, he
performs the Great Passing-On (samparaya).

Between the Unmanife^ted and the manifest lies an Abyss
which thought can never cross. Up to the farthest edge of Verse
manif ested being, the Great Self or Cosmic Ideation, here 16-21
referred to as the world of Brahma all things are transient,
even though they last a thousand ages. From out the dark
Unmanifested Nature they issue forth at every Cosmic Dawn.

They last for untold ages, but the eternal rhythm of Day and
Night is on them and, at length, there comes a time when,
like plants that have flowered, they sink back in the Un-
manifested Root of all. In that dark matrix of the Universal
Mother the seeds of all that has been lie in latency through
the long Night till the next Cosmic Dawn. This mighty
rhythm of Cosmic Day and Night, towards an idea of which
modem astronomers are perhaps dimly groping, was clearly
known to the great ancient Seers. They knew that nothing
Cosmic lasts for ever and that even the Unmanifested Mother,
Mula-prakriti , sends forth her shoots again each Cosmic
Dawn. Therefore they sought to live in the Eternal, in
that Supreme Unmanifested Brahman , the Indestructible, the
Highest Goal. Beyond the Cosmic Tides, That stands for
ever, the Great Nirvana , the Supreme Abode. Those who
attain It know nor Day nor Night. Like seeds destroyed by
fire, no Cosmic Dawn can bring them forth again to worlds
of sorrow. Of them naught can be said save the great mantra
of the Prajha Pdramitd: “ Gate gate pdragate parasangate
bodhi szodha! — O Wisdom gone, gone to the Other Shore,
landed on the Other Shore, Swdha!” 1

This is the Goal reached by the Rainbow Bridge; what of
the means by which to tread that Path? It is one thing to
know of the different levels of Consciousness but quite another
to be able to raise oneself at will to higher levels:/ The best

1 Swaha is the mantra with which offerings are made in the sacred fire.

In this, the Brahma yajHa, the seif has been offered and consumed in the
fire of the Eternal.

74 the YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Verse 22. means to accomplish this is “unswerving love and devotion
to Him in Whom all beings abide., by Whom all this Cosmos
is pervaded.” Let there be no misunderstanding here. This
is not said in the spirit that has marred some of the bhakti
schools of India, the spirit of rivalry with those who teach
the Path of Knowledge. Knowledge is indeed the very Path
itself. The Path is made of various levels of Knowledge and
we have seen the Jndm described as Krishna’s very Self. But
this Knowledge is not the knowledge found in books. It
must be gained by making the ascent to higher levels; and
how in fact may that same rising be accomplished? Who is
there that has tried to tread the Path and does not know what
is referred to here? Above our heads, like the full moon,
shines forth that higher level of our being. We see it there,
drawing our hearts with beauty, and yet, for all our efforts,
inaccessible, beyond our reach.

j The best and easiest means to make the ascent is for the
disciple to give himself in love and devotion to that which
is above his present level. Loving devotion is the easiest
way by which man can transcend his limitations. This is
the great force which will carry the disciple out of himself. 1
One’s self is dear to all, but he who loves or worships with
unswerving heart loses his self to find a higher Self in the
Beloved or the Worshipped one. Thus does he find himself
upon the level which, up till then, had gleamed beyond his
reach. Thus does he tread the Path and “sink the senses

1 < The reason that love and devotion have this power is that they have
their roots in the buddht and so beyond individuation. It is true that, as
we find them in ordinary life, they manifest through and in association
with the strong currents of the sub-mental desire-nature-*— hence
mixed and sometimes unsatisfactory nature in common experience. Never-
theless their roots are in the buddhi y and thus they have the power to pull
the disciple right through the “dead-centre” of the higher ego where so
many others stop, subtly magnifying self with every effort to i t .

Hence also the fact that these higher emotions, as we may call them, have
a definite cognitive aspect and give a knowledge that is beyond the analy tic
knowledge of the mind. Compare the words of Jung: “Intellect does in
fact _ isolate the soul when it tries to possess itself of the heritage of the
spirit. It is in no way fitted to do this, because spirit is something
higher than intellect in that it includes not only the latter, but the fe elings
as well.

THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE ETERNAL 75

in tie Mind,” and so on till he reaches the One Self, the
Shining Atman within Which all live.

This Atman may be symbolised for him as his own Teacher
or as some great Avatar a. But, through the symbols, he should
ever bear in mind it is tl^ One Great Self of all he worships,
for, as it says in Brihaddranyaka Upanishad , not for the son
or husband are son and husband dear but for the Atman which
is dear to all. For though one cannot scale at once the heights
of being, yet one can reach them step by step through love,
giving oneself to that which stands above one, climbing in
this way till the Goal is reached.

It is true that there are other ways of making the ascent.
Plotinus said that only he attains the One who has the nature
of a lover or philosopher. The disinterested passion for
Knowledge, which was what he meant by philosophy, is also
capable of lifting man out of his personality, of making him
forget all self in contemplation of the universal Truths. But
few are they whose feet can tread this latter Path. Many,
no doubt, desire Knowledge intensely, but of them, most
seek it for the power it confers and not for its own sake. It
is in that rare case alone where knowledge is desired for Truth’s
own sake that man can lose all self in its pursuit.

Love is, in any case, the power by which we rise, whether
that love be of the True or of the Beautiful or, best of all,
of the One Atman , Krishna, Who shines through everything
men love or worship. Truth of all truths. Beauty of all
things beautiful, Soul of all things beloved, to Him at last
all come, losing themselves to find their Self in Him.

“Lamp of Earth! where’er thou movest
Its dim shapes are clad with brightness
And the souls of whom thou lovest
Walk upon the winds with lightness
Till they fail as I am failing
Dizzy, lost, yet unbewailing!”

These lines of Shelley describe, as no words of mine can
ever do, the rapture of the Soul, dizzy with loss of self as it
soars towards the Light.

76 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Verse 33. There are two Paths, two everlasting Paths; by one or other

must all souls go forth. “By the one he goeth who retumeth
not, by the other he who again retumeth.” These are the
“Way Above” and the “Way of I^eath” of Hermes Tris-
megistus; probably also the Two Paths, one through the sky
and one beneath the earth, mentioned by Plato in his Vision
of Er. These Paths, the Path of Light and the Path of
Darkness, have been veiled in symbolism throughout the ages.
This particular symbolism is far older than the Gita, and these
so-called “times” are no times at all. It does not matter
when a man may die; if he has Knowledge he will tread the
Upward Path, if not, the Path of Gloom to birth and death.

Verse 34. These “times” are stages on the Paths that Souls must

tread; the one, the Bright Path of the Consciousness, the Path
Beyond, trodden by him who knows the Self in all; the other,
the Dark Path of Matter, trodden by the ignorant. He who
goes by the first climbs the steep inner Path from flickering
firelight to the Sunshine of Eternal Day. Rising from Light
to Light in ever-widening splendour, he treads the trackless
Swan’s Path till the blazing Goal is reached. 1

Verse 25. The other is the Path of gloom and sorrow. Here the only
Light is that reflected in the Moon of matter, and the traveller
in that pale radiance, taking foes for friends, losing himself
in forms which are illusions, knowing not the Immortal, goes
from death to death.

Verse 27. The man who knows these Paths has, as it were, a compass
with which to guide his steps at every instant, in death as in
life. For let it not be thought that these teachings are for
this life and world alone. Man is a citizen of many worlds,
and not here alone are dangers and temptations to be faced.
Dire illusions await man in the realms beyond the grave. Those
who believe that all has been achieved if mere “survival”
can be demonstrated, those who accept the fantasies of
mediums as the Truth, expose themselves to dangers from
which no “spirit-guide” can save them.

1 See Appendix G.

THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE ETERNAL 77

There, in those worlds, the mind, freed from the dragging
fetters of a gross material body, treads its own path, the path
prepared for it by its own thoughts and actions, done while
yet “alive.” Either it shines serene in its own Light or else
it bums in self-enkindldd flames of hatred, greed and lust,
the “threefold gate of hell” (chapter xvi, verse 21). This
hell is no less real because it is a mind-created one. Fierce
illusions 1 will beset the soul and he who knows not the Paths
will be whirled irresistibly away. Turning his back upon the
Fearless Stainless Light of the One Atman , he will embrace
the seeming beautiful but horrid phantoms of his own desires.
No sooner does he do so than the phantoms change. The
beauties vanish, leaving horrid pits of shame, through which
the soul descends to birth again and treads once more the
weary path of sorrow.

Much that is written in ancient tales of magic is a reality
in this enchanted realm. Sir Gawain, awearied of his questing
for the Grail, finds a silken pavilion in a field and merry
maidens in it,

“. . . but the gale

Tore my pavilion from the tenting pin
And blew my merry maidens all about.”

These illusions work their fell magic from behind the veil
even in this daily life of ours, but after death they burst upon
the disembodied mind with all the vividness of ancient myth.
Those who yield to them echo the cry of Tennyson’s Gawain,
whose ghost cries out to Arthur at the last:

“Farewell! there is an isle of rest for thee*

But I am blown along a wandering wind.

And hollow, hollow, hollow all delight.”

Two are the Paths, there is no third for man. Cleave to
the Self in yoga or lose yourself in matter. Brief is the choice,

1 A good account of the after-death illusions is given in the Tibetan
Book of the Dead , translated into English by Lama Dawa Samdup and
edited by Dr Evans Wentz. In reading it allowance must of course be
made for purely Tibetan imagery, and also for errors which have crept into
the text through its having fallen into the hands of professional death-bed
priests.

78 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

yet endless, too, for at each point the Way is forked: one can
go up or down. Now should the choice be made., while yet
the heart is flexible with life, for in that After-State the mind
is fixed, fixed like a death-mask, J?y its previous thoughts.

Verse 28. There but a ghostly shade of choice remains. Sped by its
former thoughts and deeds, the soul will either sink through
dread illusions to rebirth in matter, or it will rise past heavenly
realms of Light, stopping at none till it attains the Goal, the
Deathless and Supreme Eternal State.

CliAPTER IX

THE YOGA OF THE ROYAL SCIENCE AND ROYAL SECRET

“The One Swan is in the heart of the world;

He verily is the Fire that has entered into the Waters.

Having known Him one crosses over Death;

There is no other Path for going there.”

Shwetashwatara Upanishad.

The Royal Secret is not one that can be told in words.
Throughout the world runs a tradition of a wondrous Secret
sought under different names by men through all the ages.

The Philosopher’s Stone, the Elixir of Immortality, the Holy verse i.
Grail, the Hidden Name of God, all these have been the
objects of men’s quests, and all are one if rightly understood.

Many have “followed after wandering fires,” and others have
sold their quest for gold or fame, but throughout all ages there
have always been a few who trod the Path and found the
Shining Secret.

No pen can ever write down this Secret, nor can any lips
reveal it, but it is written in the inmost heart of man and has
lain there through countless ages, awaiting the day when the
disciple, tearing aside the veils of ignorance, perceives its
blazing letters in his heart. There is no man, however mean
or sinful, in whose heart it is not written, but few there are
who read its life-giving words.

This is the meaning of the statement that it is pratyaksh'.'Ve. rsea
avagamam, to be direcdy known. On this Path there^^to
such thing as blind belief. The various faith-ntf2ee%ing
creeds urge their adherents to take everything o st> t o
believe without question what is written in “e^ealed”
scriptures. But the Gita proclaims man’s inheren'. freedom
from all such fetters. The man who treads the Path sees for
hims elf the Truth, not in some promised heaven after death,

go THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

but here in this very life. Here are no books demanding
hlin d unreasoning obedience, no priests waving the keys which
unlock heavens and hells. The Truth, once seen, shines by
its own resplendent Light, and he who drinks of its waters
“shall never thirst again.”

Verse 3. No doubt faith is required to reach this Knowledge, but
that faith is not an intellectual belief in any set of dogmas nor
in the efficiency of any priestly rites . 1 The faith required is
the inner conviction that sent the Buddha on His lonely quest,
the faith that “Surely at last, far off, sometime, somewhere,
the veil will lift for his deep-searching eyes” 2 ; that somewhere
there is a Knowledge that will save the world from sorrow,
and a determination to rest not till that Knowledge be
attained. This is the faith and this the will that has sent out
the Seekers of all ages. Its life is rooted not in intellect but
in the inner Knowledge itself, and thence its rays shoot
out, though dimmed by matter, to draw the hearts of men
towards the Goal . 2

How far this Knowledge soars beyond the reach of words is
shown by the contradictory descriptions cast on the beaches of
our lower worlds. The Upanishadic Seers termed it the
knowledge of the Full, the Atman; the Buddhists, knowledge
of Anatman , of the Void. Yet both descriptions were attempts
to express the same transcendent Truth, Truth that was known
to both but which, when dressed in words, appears in these
conflicting forms.

Verses The Gita, too, has recourse to paradox, the paradox that all

4> 5 ‘ beings dwell and yet do not dwell in the One Supreme. In

order to understand this at least partially, for full understanding
■-^only with direct knowledge, it should be borne in mind
tn^?esS' T hout the Gita Krishna speaks from different levels.
In \ He is speaking of His Great Unmanifested Form
(avya. <• tcmurti ), the Parabrahman, Rootless Root of all. By

1 In as the Buddha taught, faith in rites and ceremonies as such is one

of the fritters that has to be thrown off by the disciple on this Path.

2 j Light of Asia.

2 See the notes on the higher emotions on p. 74 of the previous chapter.

THE YOGA OF THE ROYAL SCIENCE 81

that Supreme all this world is pervaded; Itself rooted in
naught, all beings dwell within Its bosom.

Of it Plotinus writes: “Generative of all, the Unity is none
of all, neither thing nor quality, nor intellect nor soul; not in
motion, not at rest, not in\place, not in time; It is the self-
defined, unique in form or, better, formless, existing before
Form was or Movement or Rest, all of which are attachments
of Being and make Being the manifold it is.” 1

But yet it is not in that ultimate Brahman that beings may be
said to dwell, for it is not until from that One have sprung
forth the Two, the Unmanifested Self or Subject and the
Unmanifested Root of Objectivity, that “the beings” come
into existence at all. It is from the mystic union the yogam
aishwaram of these Two that the beings come forth and there-
fore they cannot be said to stand in the One but rather in the
Two. Nevertheless, it is the One who is their final support,
and, though not standing in or becoming them, yet is He the Verse 6 .
cause of their forthgoing. Like Space itself, He holds them
all but yet is touched by none.

Perhaps the best way to gain some understanding of the
mystery is to remember the Hermetic axiom and study the
creative process in the microcosm, for, as it says in the Zohar,
“esoterically the man below corresponds entirely to the Man
above.” Consider a creative writer in the act of creation. If
we look into his “mind” we can see there a number of figures
playing their parts with semi-independent life, each with his
separate character and deeds, all issuing from a dark uncon-
scious matrix, all lit up by the light of consciousness. These
beings seem to live their independent lives though over all a
certain moulding power wields sway. Their creator cannot
Mil diem off at will, nor shield them from the consequences of
their acts. They take their being from the seeds 6f past
experience, personal or racial, buried deep within the dark
unconscious matrix which is the stage on which they play their
little parts. But that dark stage is not their real root. The

1 Plotinus, vi, 9*

8

82 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

dark is but the appearance which the root puts on when
watched by consciousness, and veils the deep reality which is
alike the source of forms and witnessing consciousness. 1 But
it is time to return to the Macrocosm. By a Mystic Union,
th t yogamaishwaram of verse 5, th/~ Unmanifested Self unites,
as it were imaginatively, with the Unmanifested Nature, the
Verse 8. Mula-prah[iti. The Self leans on or “embraces” the Dark
Nature, and at that embrace the seeds of plurality buried
within from previous universes shoot into life and the Great
Descent begins. This Descent is a graded perception of
increasing objectivity. As the Self “gazes” at each level a
further objectivisation takes place, resulting in plane after plane
of being. Through the mystic union with these levels 2 the
whole Cosmic Machine, down to the so-called gross objective
matter, whirls and revolves with the indwelling Life, for, as
Hermes says, “not a single thing that is dead hath been or is or
shall be in this Cosmos.”

Verses Nor is this process one which is accomplished once and then
8 ~ I0 ‘ remains for ever. Again and again, as described in the last
chapter, the mighty Outbreathing takes place and all the
countless beings thread their tangled ways throughout the
worlds, to be absorbed again at the next Cosmic Night, in
which “only the One breathes breathless by Itself.”

“This is the Truth: As from a blazing fire thousands of
sparks of like form issue forth, so from the Imperishable, O
friend, manifold beings are produced and thither do return.” *

All that has here been written, all that can be written, is

1 It is not intended to assert that this account of the microcosmic creative
process is true for all artists (though it is for some, e.g. R. L. Stevenson),
and it is only meant as a suggestive outline. Neither is it intended to equate
the Parabrahman with the collective unconscious of some modem psy-
chologists nor with the metaphysical unconscious will of Schopenhauer or
Von Hartmann, The higher levels of being seem dark to us only because
their Light is too intense to register through our brains, just as a room
blazing with ultra-violet light seems dark to our eyes though not to a camera.
Compare also the words of Hermes: “And if thou wouldst in practice
understand this work, behold what taketh place in thee desiring to beget”
(Hermetic Corpus, xi, 14).

f “Having entered into union (yoga) with principle (tattoo) after
principle” ( Shwetashwatara Upanishad , vi, 3).

* Mundaka Upanishad, II, i, 1.

THE YOGA OF THE ROYAL SCIENCE 83

but a web of words, a ladder by whose help we seek to scale the
ramparts of Eternity. Viewed by the eye of Wisdom all this
clash of world with world, the Sparks which fly from the
Eternal Anvil, are but a vast phantasmagoria. Nothing is
outbreathed nor anything descends to rise again. All are the
visions of the Eternal Mind; the changing finite centres that
are us ourselves being but the countless points of view within
that mighty Whole, “for there is naught in all the world that
is not He.” 1

But few there are whose souls are of such stature that they
can look upon the highest Truth and live. In him who sees
before his soul is perfect, love and compassion die, killed by
that freezing Knowledge, and all the strivings of a million lives
are lost, and he who might have been a lamp to suffering men
chooses Nirvana and is lost to us as though at no time had he
ever been.

Let us take up our web of words again lest too much know-
ledge, like the Gorgon’s head, should freeze us where we stand.
Though the One Self projects the Cosmic Wheel and fills it
with Its life-blood, yet is that Self not bound upon its whirling
spokes. Filled by the One Life, countless beings strive. Verse 9.
enjoy or suffer, die and come to birth again, and yet that One
Life is for ever free, “seated like one indifferent, unattached to
actions.”

“I saw the King of Kings descend the narrow doorway to the dust.

With all Eds fires of morning still, the beauty, bravery and lust.

And yet He is the life within the Ever-living living Ones,

The Ancient with Eternal youth, the cradle of the infant Suns.” a

Men sin and suffer, act and reap the fruits, and yet the Atman
seated in their hearts, the Self whose life moves all that is,
impelling all to action, feels not the sting of death but lives for
ever, free and unattached even in the very web of deeds. This
is the mystery of the Divine Action; he who knows its secret
comes not to birth again (chapter iv, verse 9). The little
figures on the writer’s inner stage, ensouled by him, made of

2 From A. E.’s poem Krishna .

1 Hermetic Corpus ; a v, 9.

84 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Ms very being, weave out their destinies, bound by their own
past acts, and yet Ms contemplative consciousness is free. 1
So is the Atman free though through Its life the Cosmic
Wheel revolves. “He ever is at work, Himself being what He
doeth. For did He separate Hims'elf from it, all things would
then collapse and all must die.” 2

Two types of men are found in the world. The first are
those who unite their being with the deceitful outer nature

Verse 12. ( mohini prakriti ), the ever-changing world of transient forms.

Verse n. These are those foolish ones who disregard the shining Atman ,
seeing only the perishable bodies wMch It ensouls. Therefore
are they said to be empty of hope, for there can be no hope
in forms that come and go; and empty of deeds, for deeds
can have no meaning save as the service of the One Eternal
Life.

Verses In, contrast with these are the wise ones who unite their being

13 I5 * with the daivi prakriti, the Divine Life wMch flows like Ganga
through the triple world, ensouling all the forms, the stainless
living Radiance streaming from the Imperishable Source of all.
Ever united with that living Light, firm in the vow 2 wMch
offers self in service of the Self, they turn their gaze within
and see the radiant Source as One beyond all forms and yet
as manifold within the hearts of all.

Verse 19. From that Source, the Father, Mother, All-supporter of the
Cosmos, comes forth the fire of life and the creative waters of
desire. All that is manifest, as well as what is still unmanifest,
comes from that wondrous Treasure House (nidhanam).

The higher up the Path of Light a man ascends the more
gloriously radiant are the forms wMch It ensouls, and there are
always many who climb a certain height only to lose themselves

1 Those whose hearts may feel tempted to revolt at the idea of the free
Seif calmly watching the bound selves should remember that it is not
any personal extra-cosmic God who is here spoken of, but our own true
Self, seated within our hearts. Were He not ever free we could not break
our bonds. In Him alone is freedom, truth and immortality.

8 Hermetic Corpus. , 11-14 (Mead’s translation).

3 Compare these “firm vows” (verse 14) with the vow of the Bodhisattvas,
“as the chain of births is endless, so long shall I live the holy life for the
well-being of all creatures” (Shantideva).

THE YOGA OF THE ROYAL SCIENCE 85

in heavenly enjoyments. 1 But, if this temptation is yielded to. Verse 20.
the energy of the ascent is dissipated among those fair creations
and, when it is spent, the pilgrim soul is carried down by the
unresting cycles and must, in circumstances good or ill, start
on this earth once more it*, upward climb. The seeds buried
in the darkness of earth shoot ^tp and bear their fruit in the free
air, .the corn seven cubits high that grew in the Egyptian fields
of Ahloo, and then return as seeds once more to earth.

Though this is called the Path of Darkness in the previous
chapter, yet is it only such in contrast to the glorious Path of Verse 21.
Light. It is the normal cyclic path of human life throughout
the long ages of evolution, during which the souls lured by
desire (kamakama) must know and suffer all before they take
the Homeward Path.

It is only for the grown soul of the disciple that this path
becomes a snare to be avoided, for he is one who has renounced
desire and may not without shame yield to the lure of heaven.

His duty is to offer up himself in sacrificial service to the One Verse 24.
Great Life that is the Lord of all; all other worship is an
obstacle for him. Forms in the psychic world, spirits of the
blessed dead, the shining Gods themselves, all these exist
beyond the world of men, and all have drawn the souls of men
in worship. But the result of worship is assimilation to the
being who is worshipped, and no limited, finite God can give
the Soul that State which is beyond all limitations. These
shining forms may serve to lead men upwards and make them
blossom in the higher worlds; but blossoms fade and must
return to earth, this drab but wondrous earth in which alone
the plant of life can grow.

The Path of Liberation is for men alone. The Gods are
stopping-places on the way, fair forms for most, but veritable
Moloch mouths for him who treads the Homeward Path, Verse 25.
since, once assimilated to their being, there is no onward path
save through the womb of earth again. The disciple at this

1 At die time when the Gita was written this gaining of heavenly enjoy-
meats after death had come to be considered the path taught by the Vedas
(verses 20 and 21).

86 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

stage must leave the forms and see the Light that shines
through all, for it is by that Light that all are glorious. The
worshippers of Gods are ignorant, for they see but the forms
and not the Light of that Unknown Eternal without which
they are nothing. 4

, But, comes the question, how,can that Light be worshipped?

, Stainless, serene, eternally transcendent, “That from which
speech turns back, together with the mind, unable to attain,” 1
how can we soar to that Eternal Krishna? The Way to Him
Verse 26. is not through any complicated rites or ceremonials but
through sheer giving. , The disciple must reverse that process
of grasping which builds up a personal self and strive to give
away instead of getting. First with symbolic gifts of leaves
and flowers and fruit, but afterwards with gift of self, the
Verses consecration of all acts to Him. Nor should any think his

27.28. gifts are not accepted. All gifts, however small, are
“accepted,” because all giving is a breaking-down and weaken-
ing of the barrier which, like some iron egg-shell, cuts off the
soul from the wide life outside. The smallest act of giving
is a step upon that Path and leads the soul by easy steps
to that sublime stage where the whole personal life, with all
its acts and thoughts and feelings, is dedicated to the service
of the One in all, where acts can bind no more since self is
dead, and naught remains that can be bound by them.

Verse 29. The Way is taught, but each must tread it by himself.

•.“The same am I to all beings; there is none hateful to Me nor
dear.” No special privileges can be found upon this Path.
He who seems to climb with glorious ease to-day is not a
favoured darling of the Gods but one who reaps the fruit of
arduous struggles yesterday, while he whose breath comes
hard upon the mountain path may know for certain that, if
hepersists,a time will come when he too will gain the athlete’s
grace and mastery.

There is no other way to Krishna than giving of the self
to Him in service^ By his own efforts each must climb the

1 Taittiriya Upcmishad, II 3 iv 3 1.

THE YOGA OF THE ROYAL SCIENCE 87

Path, but always Krishna stands within the soul and none
who seeks to offer up himself can be refused the chance.

Though he must climb in weary loneliness, striving alone
with his own heart, yet is that loneliness a mere illusion, for
there, unseen, “closer to ihim than breathing, nearer than
hands and feet,” stands his ^temal Friend and inmost Self.

, Nothing interposes between him and his inner God except the
veil of egoism which he himself has made, and which is thinn ed
and weakened by each unselfish art of giving.

Therefore is it said that even if the most sinful of men
turns to Him and serves Him with undivided heart, he too Verse 30.
must be accounted righteous, for he too has entered on the
Homeward Path. True, the self-assertive acts that constitute
the evil of his past have left him with a legacy of tendencies
that he will have to struggle hard to overcome, for nothing
can annihilate deeds once they have been done. To seek to
have their consequences washed away by any magic or by any
prayers is merest superstition, but even so, no man is ever
fettered utterly. A man may sin a thousand times, and by
those arts so strengthen his lower self that it is almost certain
he will sin again next time. Almost, but not quite certain,
for in everyone shines the free Atman, and where That exists
no bondage can be absolute. Always a man can turn and
climb the upward path, for the Divine Freedom that is in his
heart can never be annulled, and even the very power by
which he sins, traced to its source, springs from the Stainless
One.

Once the resolve is made and kept to art in future for the
higher not the lower self, progress is speedy, and the Path is Verse 31!
entered on which leads at last to the Eternal Peace. Though
there will many times be fallings off and failures, yet once the
link with the Divine Self has been established the disciple
cannot fall again into the utter darkness. Something has ;
awakened within him which will never let him rest again in ;

matter, and, though at times he may even fight against it, the ;

inner pull will ever and again be felt, and like a big fish held

88 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

on a slender line lie will eventually be brought out of the
stream to land, for, as Krishna says, “know thou for certain
that my devotee perishes never.” 1

Verse 32. The Atman dwells within the hearts of all and therefore is
this path open to all without distinction of race, caste, or sex.
The Vedic path needed a wealth of learning and therefore
was inevitably closed to those, such as women and the Sudra
caste, who were debarred by social rules from Vedic study. 4
This Path, calling only for sincere self-giving, needs no
scriptural or philosophic learning and so is available for all,
since all the Knowledge that is needed comes of itself to him
who gives himself.

Therefore the Teacher sums up all that He has said in one
brief verse, a verse whose great importance may be seen from
the fact that the same verse (with an insignificant variation) is
used to sum up the completed teaching at the end of chapter
eighteen:

Verse 34. “On Me fix thy mind; give thyself in love to Me; sacrifice
to Me; prostrate thyself before Me; having thus united thy
whole self (to Me), with Me as thy Goal, to Me shalt thou
come.”

The disdple must with his pure mental vision see Him, the
One in all, and with his heart offer hims elf in love. His
active powers he must use in sacrificial service and, as prostra-

1 The symbolism of the soul caught on the line of the Divine Fisher is
m ancient mysteries and underlies the statement of Jesus about
fishers of men.” For details see Eisler’s Orpheus the Fisher . The words of
Vyasa (m the Vishnu Pur ana), uttered at the commencement of the Kali

Yuan, cfi/vnlrf ahsn, ka A J* • .V ^ . <- .

xvnT r , w luxtuiiaie : ouaras are iornmate r

When asked why he thus exclaimed he replied: “Women are fort una te
because self-giving comes to them by birthright and Sudras because their
aharma is that of service.”

a 3 2 must not be taken as sanctioning the relegation of women
P^ce society. When the Gita was written (as to a large
extent even now) women were in fact depressed and practically deprived
or the advantages of education. Sri Krishna is not supporting this but
pointing out that* even with these handicaps* this Path is open for them.

refers to the fact that the karmik penalty for
opportunities is loss of opportunity in future* and so a birth in
a?? sec ^ons of society which* at that given time and place, suffer
^oedom and opportunity. It should not be taken
as justifying such a state of society.

THE YOGA OF THE ROYAL SCIENCE 89

tion, see the personal self as naught before that mighty Whole.
Thus in balanced union, avoiding any one-sided intellectualism,
emotionalism, or activity, head, heart and hands all fixed on
Him, filled with Him, transmuted to His nature, he treads
the Royal Path on which l}ie Soul, dying to self, rising again
in Self, knows the Eternal !ywan and, having known, crosses
beyond all death.

CHAPTER X

THE YOGA OF THE PERVADING POWERS

Seeking nothing, give thyself utterly to Me. These words will
serve to summarise the teaching that has now (in Chapter IX)
been given. . But who is it who thus claims allegiance from
the Soul? “Worship thou Me,” says Krishna, and His
words find echo in the saying of Christ: “No man cometh
to the Father save through Me.” Sectarian creeds in East and
West have fastened on these sayings and urged the personal
and unique greatness of their own particular Teacher, Son of
God or very God Himself, incarnate in the world to save the
souls of men. For either we must think these Great Ones were
deluded in thus proclaiming themselves the sole Way to the
Highest, or else we must suppose, which is indeed the case,
that it is not as separate individual beings that they speak but
as the unborn, beginningless Eternal, the Brahman in which all
abide, “by which all this is pervaded.”

It is the knowledge of this One Eternal that, from the
seventh chapter onwards, is growing in the heart of the
disciple. This is the knowledge which “having known,
naught here remains to know .” 1 It is not enough to know
the merely individual Christ or Krishna, though indeed, as we
shall see at the conclusion of the whole teaching, there is a
secret, the most purely mystical of all, hidden in the heart of
what we term their personalities. There is a direct Path
to the inmost heart of Reality, one that proceeds straight
through what may be termed the concrete infinity of the
Divine Lord who shows forth with human limbs the action
of the Actionless, who utters with h uman speech the voiceless
Wisdom of the Eternal. But the context shows that it is not

1 Gita, vii, 2.
go

THE YOGA OF THE PERVADING POWERS 91

with that most secret path of all that we are here concerned,
but rather with the Divine Presence that stands, pervading all.

It is as that Brahman that Sri Krishna here speaks, the
Brahman out of Which all beings come and into Which all
will in time return. Its ^ecrets are for ever hidden in that Verse 2 ,
uncreated Darkness. Nor God nor Sage can know Its rootless
being, for from It all come iorth, and he who plunges in to
know Its utmost mystery is God or man no more, his being
all dissolved in blazing Light that yet is darkness to the highest
dualistic knowing.

All we can know is that all separate qualities, the various Verses
states of mind, some positive, some negative, exist in unity 5 '
as moments of that blazing Darkness and from It issue forth
to shine in men as separate states of being.

The seven great Lights, 1 2 which are the planes of being,
all issue forth as previously described (chapters viii and ix).

These seven Lights or planes are here divided into three main Verse 6 .
classes. First come the “previous four,” 3 the four high
levels of being (two of them “unmanifested”) beyond all
individuation. These have been symbolised as four eternal,
chaste, ascetic youths, the four Kumaras, who refused to create
offspring, preferring to remain in contemplation of the One.

The truth behind this symbol is that these four planes are
planes of unity in which the separate individualities have not
been formed.

Below these come the “Manus” here the separate individuals
( fivas ), the “points of view” within the all-seeing Light.*

1 Verse 6. In addition to the meaning of sage or seer the word “rishi”
means light or ray. And it is in this latter sense that the word has been used.

Here, as so often, the ambiguity of the Sanskrit language has been used to
symbolise abstract truths in personal forms, the seven sages of mythology.

2 Some read “the four previous Manus ” but there were more than four
previous Manus according to the Paurdnic account and commentators are
reduced to various ingenuities to explain why four are mentioned. These
four levels are referred to in the Kathopanishad as the Shanta Atmaru the
avyakta (. MuLa-prakriti ), the Great Atman ( Mahat ) and the JnSm Atman
( Buddhi ). See diagram in Appendix E.

2 This use of the word “Manu” may be seen in the Vaishnava P anchor air a
Agama . See Schrader’s Introduction to the “Pancharatra” This level
corresponds to manas > the (higher) mind or, in other systems, ahankara.

92 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

From them, the age-enduring points, issued “this race of
men,” dying and being bom on endless wheels of change.

These “Manus” are the central or, as it were, neutral points
of the whole manifold creation; on them as on a pivot all is
balanced. 1 * * * * * * The two higher levels (for we can leave aside
the “unmanifested” two as no tpt of the manifested cosmos)
are mainly inward-turned, so to speak centripetal, and hence
are symbolised as chaste ascetics. The lowest two, 8 the
hanging worlds of beings, are outward-turned or centrifugal
in their tendency, while between both, as points of equilibrium,
are found “the Manus” standing firmly in themselves. Of
them, or “through” them, come the changing beings, the sons
of Mam known as mdnavas (men). These Manus are the
Sons of God and no man goeth to the Father save through them
alone. “Know thyself,” ran the inscription at the Delphic
Oracle, and he who would attain the wider being beyond
must find and enter through the narrow door within the heart.

On all the planes of cosmos is the One as immanent per-
verse 7. vading Power {vibhuti} united with the forms by mystic yoga
(see previous chapter), and therefore it is said that he who
knows in essence this pervading power and yoga of the Supreme
unites with Him in firm unwavering yoga.

Verse 8. „ “I am the source of all,” says Krishna, “by Me all revolves.”

As Mula-prakriti, He is the Source of all the forms and, as
the One transcendent Self, it is His yoga that throws them
into motion. The ordinary man sees nothing but the passing
forms, in them he puts his hopes, in them is fixed his being.
Forms come and he feels happy; they go and sorrow over-
whelms his mind, for never can it be that forms shall stand
for ever. But the disciple, seeing thus the source and life

1 This level is sometimes also referred to as “sthSnu,” the fixed or stable,

and is the same as the adhiyajna of chapter eight.

* The desire-nature and the physical world referred to in the Katho-

pmishad as the indriyas (senses) and their objects. This structure of the

universe is one meaning of the well-known ancient symbol of two triangles

standing point to point (cf. the damaru of Shiva), the upper triangle,

the worlds of beings the lower one, the worlds of dux and change, reflected

worlds of Maya’s shifting play.

THE YOGA OF THE PERVADING POWERS 93

of all as one, is rooted in that One and remains blissful though
all the forms around him change and pass.

To such as can thus root themselves in Him, serving Him
ever with the worship bom of love. He gives the bnddhi-yoga , Verse zo
that union with the buddh\by which they go to Him. The
buddhi is the wisdom whichSees the One in All; it also is tie
faculty by which that vision is acquired. We have seen how
the individual self is balanced between the centrifugal and the
centripetal forces. United to the lower levels the self flows
outwards into forms and dies, as it were, with them, while
united to the higher it is carried Homewards by the inflowing
cosmic tides.

“Out of pure compassion for them, dwelling within their Verse n
Self, I destroy the ignorance-bom darkness by the shining
lamp of Wisdom.”

It should not be thought that this compassion is something
capricious, something given or withheld at will like a Maharaja’s
favour. The sun’s rays shine on all alike; without them all
would die. But he who would feel their warmth upon his skin
must leave his shut-in cave and seek the open air. Similarly,
he who would experience the Divine Compassion in his soul
must leave the cave of self and seek the wider being. He must
strive upwards, outwards from his self, breaking the barriers
till the Homeward-flowing tides are felt and sweep him off
his feet.

These Homeward tides that sweep the upper planes of
being, sometimes termed “grace,” 1 are the Divine Compassion
which will bear the soul up to the One Eternal, but, before
they can be felt, the disciple must strive desperately with all
Ms might to cling to Krishna, and by Ms own unaided efforts
break down the prison walls.

To him who says “show us the Lord and it sufficeth us”

1 The term Grace, however, if used at ail, is better reserved for a mysterious
Power, testified to by mystics of East and West, a Power that is wielded alike
by Krishna and the human Guru, and which is so ultimate that it baffies
all attempts at intellectual formulation. All we can say is that it is utterly
free and that it is rooted in that aspect of the Supreme and Eternal One that
manifests in us as personality.

94 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

comes the reply “that which is highest in thyself is He, as
much of Him as thou caast see as yet. Cling then to that
and thou shalt go to Him.”

Clinging thus to Krishna, the mind becomes irradiated by
the Light of the One Atman shining serenely through the
buddhi overhead. The effect of* this irradiation is that the
intellectual knowledge of the mind is vivified and rendered
luminously certain by the buddhi’ s direct intuition. This is
shown very clearly in the Gita in the twelfth and following
verses.

Verse 12. “Thou art the Great Eternal, the Great Light, the pure
and stainless One, Divine, eternal Man, primal Divinity,
Unborn and all-pervading-”

Verse 13. t All this was known before as abstract truth, testified to by
all the Seers of the past, but “now Thou Thysdf sayest it to
me.” A new and rapturous warmth whose source is in the
buddhi pervades the mind which soars beyond itself. New
vistas, like a landscape half-perceived, open before the mental
gaze and the old words and thoughts, words formerly believed,
&own intellectually to be the truth, now shine transformed
within a magic light never before perceived. Useless to try
to state in words this new perception with its l umin osity. It
shows in the note of ecstasy that sounds through Arjuna’s
words. It is as if one strumming idly on a windless organ
should suddenly hear the notes sounding forth in answer to
the keys. The thoughts that were but thoughts, bare intel-
lectual concepts, greyly self-sufficient, now waken coloured
harmonies that echo through the arches of what seemed a
void before. No longer are things seen as separate units but
as the interlinked and shining web of a vast splendid pattern
still but half-perceived.

Verse 15. To change this twilit half-perception into the s unshine of
true knowledge further advance is needed. It is by the
Atman itself that the Atman is gained , 1 or, as the Gita puts it,

^ft^opanishadi ii, 23, the famous words yameoaisha minute
t e n a labhyah, which may be rendered “that very ( Atman ) which the disciple
chooses (t.e. clings to), by means of that (Atman) is it attained.” P

THE YOGA OF THE PERVADING POWERS 95

“Thou thyself knowest Thyself by Thyself, O Highest
Purusha, Sender forth of beings. Light of the Shining Ones,

Ruler of the World!”

Even the btiddhi shines not by its own light. Beyond it is
the Light of the Great Atrmn, the Cosmic Ideation in which
the Divine archetypes of paK present and future exist in one
vast interpenetrative whole. 1 * * * Here is the splendid pattern
of the Cosmos radiant with Divine Light, a wondrous unity
of spiritual Beings.

“For There everything is transparent, nothing dark, nothing
resistant; every being is lucid to every other, in breadth and
depth; light runs through light. And each of them contains
all within itself, and at the same time sees all in every other,
so that everywhere there is all, all is all, and each all, and
infinite the glory. Each of them is great; the small is great:
the sun. There, is all the stars, and every star again is all the
stars and sun. While some one manner of being is dominant
in each, all are mirrored in every other.” 5

All that is in the world is what it is because of the reflection
of some portion of that glorious Being. In it the unity of aft
the manifold is found. It is, as has been said before, the
topmost edge of manifested being, what lies beyond is all
unmanifest. The soul, united to the buddhi (buddhi-yukta),
must now ascend this snowy peak of being, must see, first by
the mental eye, and at last by direct spiritual vision, those Verse 16
Divine Glories by which the Supreme stands pervading all
the worlds. These are the Divine Ideas spoken of by Plato,
the pervading Powers (pibhuti) that are the subject of this
chapter.

The phrase “Divine Ideas” should not mislead the reader
(as it has misled many intellectuals) into thinking that they
are pale abstractions, the conceptual “universals” of academic

1 Compare Plotinus vi, 9: “Thus we come to the Nous (Divine Mind)

almost as an object of sense: the Intellectual Kosmos is perceptible as

s tanding above soul, father to soul ... a multiple but at once indivisible

and comporting difference.”

! Plotinus, Etmeads , v, tractate 8.

9 6 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

philosophy. 1 These “Ideas” are not conceptual abstractions
at all, but living Spiritual Powers which, as the Gita says,
“stand” in their own nature eternally and are reflected in the
flux of beings, giving to each its form and its essential nature,
not abstracted from beings but formative of beings, the perfect
types and patterns of all things foire below:

“Out of the dark it wrought the heart of man.

Out of dull shells the pheasant’s pencilled neck:

Ever at toil, it brings to loveliness
All ancient wrath and wreck.”

To reach this Divine world is now the task of the disciple
and therefore Arjuna asks:

Verse 17. “O Yogi, 1 how may I know Thee by constant meditation?
In what aspects art Thou to be thought of by me, O Glorious
One?”

The Divine Realities cannot be seen by eyes of flesh; nor
by, it may be added, the so-called clairvoyant eye of pseudo-
occultism, an eye whose realm at best is that of psychic forms.
The eye by which they must be seen is that of buddki, the eye
pf spiritual vision. 1

But though that eye is now available for the disciple he must
first learn to open it and to habituate himself to its use. Just
as a man, though having as his birthright mind with all its
powers of thinking, yet has to learn by slow and arduous steps
how to unfold those powers, so the disciple who has now
united mind with buddki must slowly and with effort open
up its powers of vision. The mental life in which he still is,
for the most part, rooted must be transmuted by the higher
vision. A man bom blind, but who has gained his sight, finds
for some time the new sense un familiar and rather trusts his

1 The latter are only diagrams constructed by the mind, and while they
may refer to, can never be the true “Divine Ideas.”

* Note that Krishna is here addressed as “Yogi” because it is on this
plane that the Wondrous Yoga , the Yogamaishwaram , takes place. It is
here that the one u nmani fested Self ( Shdnta Atman ) unites with the one
u nm a n ifested Nature (Mula-prakriti) . See previous chapter.

* Cf. Hermes, vi, 4: <e For all the things that fall beneath the eye are
image things and pictures as it were, while these that do not meet the eyes
are the realities.”

THE YOGA OF THE PERVADING POWERS 97

highly cultivated sense of touch with all its limitations than
this strange power of sight which now has opened.

Therefore the Teacher now sets forth a method, a discipline
by which the soul may learn to use the eye of buddhi and to
trust its baffling, unfamiliar vision more than the familiar
seeing of the mind. 1 ■

The verses which follow (20-42) are not to be considered as
the self-praise of a merely personal God so dear to theists.
Again it must be said, the “I” who speaks is not just the
personal Krishna 2 but the Great Atman, One and manifold,
pervading by Its Powers all things that are. These verses
contain the practical method by which the soul may learn to
use and trust its eye.

, The disciple is instructed to try to see in all things, not their
separate being, but the Great Atman, by whose Powers all have
their form and nature. Each type of being on earth is what it is
because of the “reflection” 3 of some aspect of that Atman.
This “reflection” is best seen in those objects which are pre-
eminent within their class, for it is in them that the Divine
Archetype has best found expression. This is the meaning of
the list that Krishna gives. 4 In all things, gods or men or
sages, so-called “inanimate” objects or in mental qualities,

1 The mind sees by analysis and separation, splitting the unity of life
into the separate aspects named and pinned like insects on the board it
calls science. The buddhi sees the unity in all and therefore Krishna
teaches Arjuna how the Divine Pervading Powers are to be looked for in
the things below.

2 This is made quite clear in verse 37, in which the personal Krishna,
son of Vasudeva, is treated as quite separate from the “I” who is speaking.

3 c< We do not mean that the Idea, locally separate, shows itself in Matter

like a reflection in water; the Matter touches the Idea at every point, though
not by physical contact, and by dint of neighbourhood — nothing to keep
them apart — is able to absorb thence all that lies within its capacity, the
Idea itself not penetrating, not approaching, the Matter, but remaining
self-locked” (Plotinus, VI, v, 8). .....

4 The various mythological beings and symbols that occur in this hst,
some of which have now ceased to play a very vivid part in even a Hindu
mind, were all quite living to the man for whom the Gita was composed
two or three thousand years ago. Vitteska , for instance. King of Yakshas
(gnomes), is at best for us a hieroglyph which must be carefully translated;
at worst, he is a charming old-world fancy. But long ago he was, for the
many, an actual being as real as, say, the Eskimos to us, or, for the few 3
a living symbol needing no painful learning to decipher.

Q

98 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Verse 20. “He” is to be sought out and contemplated in the chief of
every class . 1 * * * * * * For He indeed is verily the Atman in all beings,
their very Self, the base on which they stand.

What makes the gods shining and powerful? It is the Light
Verses and Power of the One. What makes the Vedas holy, worthy of
2I_38- our reverence? It is the ancieift Archetypal Wisdom. What
is it that calls forth our aspirations in the sight of mountain
peaks, c alms us in sheets of water, whispers to us in trees,
disturbs our hearts in animals 8 or thrills in gleaming weapons?
What is it but Him shining through all these beings in spiritual
Powers to which, if we give names, they are but poor translation
for our weakness?

Even in the greatly wicked, in him who says to evil
“Be thou my good,” in the fierce pride of Duryodhana,
Verse 36. in such a type of monstrous wickedness as Shakespeare’s
Richard the Third, we feel His presence compelling wonder,
even admiration, in spite of all the protests of our moral
nature.

We must not turn from these perceptions as mere poetic
fancies, saying, as many do, that, after all, in fact an animal is
but an animal; a sword, a strip of steel. What is thus felt in
beings is not a fancy but something truly, if but vaguely, seen
within. The disciple must cling to these intuitive perceptions
and by constant meditation sharpen them to clearness
until the outer forms seem unreal thing s through whose
translucid shells the wondrous Powers shine in their gle amin g
splendours.

As he proceeds a change will overtake his vision. Not only
will he see the spiritual Power in each form, but since these

1 Compare Plotinus, vi, 9: “Things here are signs; they show therefore

to the wiser teachers how the supreme God is known; the instructed priest

reading the sign may enter the holy place and make real the vision of the

inaccessible.”

* In spite of man's ill-treatment of and contempt for the “lower animals”

he has always felt a disturbing sense of something strange and archetypal

in their being. This is the underlying cause of the “totemism” of so-called

primitive peoples, of the animal-gods of the Egyptians (so distasteful to
both pagan Greek and Christian) and of the animal signs in the Zodiac,

THE YOGA OF THE PERVADING POWERS 99

Powers are united in a living Whole, he will begin to see, what
before he could but think, the vast interconnectedness of all
things. 1 2

“In our realm all is part arising from part and nothing can be
more than partial; but Thesg each being is an eternal product
of a whole and is at once a whole and an individual mani-
festation as part but, to the keen vision There, known for the
whole it is.” *

Thus to the seeing eye all things are linked to all
in a great Cosmic Harmony. Flowers in the green are
seen as one with the far-distant stars gleaming for ever
in the blue abyss of space. Within this six-foot frame blow
all the winds of heaven and in the heart of man lie still the
glittering pomp, the sometimes cruel beauty, and all the
hidden secrets of long-vanished empires buried now beneath
the desert sands or ocean waves.

There is a story current that on certain days, if one go out to
sea from the town known as Dwdrka, beneath the waves can
dimly be descried the towers and pinnacles of Krishna’s island
city. Legend, no doubt, for Dwdrka was not there. Never-
theless beneath the storm-tossed surface of our hearts the
vanished past still lives. Unseen within these depths the
ancient wars are fought, Atlantis shines in glory, darkens with
pride and falls; Sri Krishna walks the earth and Buddha
leaves his home for love of men.

Nothing is lost, for ever all remains, deep in the waters of
eternal Mind. He who can plunge within lives in the Cosmic
Heart and sees Its mighty throbs send forth the cycling years
to run their ch anging courses through the worlds back to the
blue depths of Eternity.

It is said that in a lotus-seed exists in minature a perfect

1 These connections, vaguely intuited, give life to poetry and art. What
the poet dimly senses and dares not take for more than metaphor is clearly
seen by the awakened seer. It may also be added that the use of these
affinities is an essential part of Kabalistic and other forms of magic, white
or black.

2 Plotinus, v, 8.

100 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

lotus. So in that Mighty Being is the seed of all that is, 1
Verse 39. subtle beyond all images of sense, the shining spiritual Cosmos;
Infinite seeds and yet one wondrous Seed, beyond the reach of
mind, yet to be seen by Mind.

All that is glorious, beautiful, mighty shines by reflection
of a portion of that Being. Vainly we seek on earth a symbol
Verse 40. g ranH enough to adumbrate Its glories. In ancient Egypt and
r.halrW the starry heaven was Its only symbol; the heaven
with its interlinked and patterned stars whirling in gleaming
harmoni es around the pole. But all the splendours of the
cosmic depths, their mind-annihilating magnitudes of time
and space, symbol to all men of eternal Law and Beauty, are
but a moment of the Mighty Atman ; infinities ranged on the
shoulders of infinities; a wondrous hierarchy of living spiritual
Powers where each is each and each is All and all dance forth
in ecstasy the Cosmic Harmony. 2

Vast beyond thought as is this spiritual realm, this flaming
Cosmos of Divine Ideas, yet still beyond lies That, the One
Verse 42. Eternal, the Parabrahman, Rootless Root of all. 3 Beyond all
Gods, beyond all time and space, beyond all being even, flames
Its dark transcendent Light.

From that Eternal Brahman issue forth the Mighty Atman s
great beyond all thought, and all the countless starry worlds
that fill the wide immensities of space. Yet so vast is Its

1 Gita, x, verses 39-42. Compare this with the so-called Naassene
document. “Accordingly they (the Egyptians) declare concerning the
Essence of the Seed which is the cause of all things in the world of genera-
tion, that it is none of these things, but that it begets and makes all generated
things saying, ‘I become what I will and am what I am/ Therefore that
which moves all is unmoved; for It remains what it is, making all thing s,
and becoming no one of the things produced ” (Mead’s translation).

Also compare the seed principles (logoi spermatikoi ) of the Stoic
philosophers.

* This Cosmic Harmony, known to Pythagoreans as the music of the
spheres, was in the Vedic tradition termed rita y the cosmic order in which
all the gods exist. Those who find in the Vedas mere chaotic polytheism
and those who find incipient monotheism are alike mistaken. Unity
indeed there was, but it was not the unity of a personal being but of Divine
impersonal Cosmic Order within which Indra, Varuna and Agni y the whole
pantheon ot Gods, all shone and had their being.

* Strictly speaking, between the Great Atman and the Parabrahman are
the unmanifested Two. For convenience they are here included in die
Supreme Unmanifested One.

THE YOGA OF THE PERVADING POWERS ioi

spaceless, timeless grandeur that all these wondrous emanated
worlds are as a drop taken from out the ocean, leaving Its
shoreless being ever full. Therefore Sri Krishna, speaking
for That Brahman , says, “having established this entire
universe with one fragment of Myself, I remain.”

“That is the Ful!^ this is the full;

From that Full has this full come forth.

Having taken the full from the Full
Verily the Full Itself remains .” 1

1 Shared to Ishopanishad.

Verses
i* 2.

Verses

CHAPTER XI

THE YOGA OF THE VISION 0 THE COSMIC FORM

With the opening of the eleventh chapter we find the disciple
on the brink of a tremendous experience, one so great that
many have thought it to be the final Goal beyond which naught
remains. If that were so the Gita would have ended with this
chapter; nevertheless, he who has seen this Vision has attained
to the third stage, called by the Buddhists Anagamin , 1 whence
but one last stage remains to tread.

The three great Secrets have been learnt so far, at least as
far as buddhi-aided mind can grasp them. First the great
Secret of the transcendental Atman, the source of all that is and
yet Itself unmoved for ever. Under the gaze of that unchang-
ing One streams forth the universe of finite beings, coming
and going in never-ending change; while between both, the
link between the two, stands the Imperishable Greatness , 1
the Spiritual Cosmos, changeless in change, changing in
changelessness.

The dawn has come, the shades of night have vanished; in
a short while the Sun will rise. Eager for yet more Light, the
disciple stands straining his eyes towards the East, aspiring to
that Teacher in his heart who is. Himself, the Soul of all the
world. Not knowing of the terror that the Vision holds for all
that yet remains of self in him, he longs to look upon that Face
which nothing that is mortal may behold.

“If Thou thinkest that by me it can be seen. Lord of the
Cosmic Yoga, then show me Thine imperishable Self.”

No fleshly eye can see that Sovereign Form. Only the

1 Anagamin literally means one who does not come again (to birth).
The common view is that the Anagamin attains Nirvana direct from some
higher world after death. Actually the meaning is that having attained
to the Alaya Vijhana (the Mahal Atman ) he is one with all and thinks no
more “I die or I am bom. ,, 3 The Mahat Atman.

102

THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM 103

Atman's never-closing Eye can see the Atman's self. But, for Verse 8.
the disciple “who has made the thought in him a stranger to
the world-illusion,” 1 who can pass through himself into the
Life beyond, that Divine Eye is now available and flashes into
dazzling, all-revealing vision.

A splendour bursts upon Ms gaze “as though ten thousand Verse 12.
suns were blazing in the sky,” and in that spiritual Light,
which, though so brilliant, dazzles not the Eye, he sees the
myriad Powers of the Great Atman. There in the body of that
boundless Being are all the living Powers that men have Verse 13.
worshipped as Gods, not as if standing side by side in space,
but each a facet mirroring the Whole, so interfused in being,
each with each, that he who sees knows not indeed whether it
is one Being that he sees or many Powers. 2

All who have seen the Vision, for to this day, as in times past,
it dawns upon the gaze of all who tread the Path, know the
astonishment, the rapture mixed with terror, that fills the soul
as the Great Atman flashes into view.

Dead to all worldly things, standing outside himself, the
disciple sees the great Expanse all blue with quivering supernal
Light like lightnings massed in some world-ending cataclysm,
the storm-tossed Ocean, glittering with souls, dizzily spixming
in the dread Vortex Whirl, the terror of the Sound, throbbing
in awful power through the vast Space like some great engine
pulsing forth the Cosmic tides to ebb and flow throughout
the Universe, and yet beyond the storm the changeless Peace,
massively shining in a bliss beyond all words.

All this he sees and more that none can tell, sees with a vivid-
ness past all mere human seeing; yet all are symbols cast on
the background of the Fathomless, wherein is neither Sound,
nor Space, nor Sea, nor Vortex Whirl, nor any form at all.*

1 Hermes, xiii, i.

2 Compare Plotinus, v, 8: “He who is the one God and all the gods,
where each is all, blending into a unity, distinct in powers but all one god
in virtue of that one divine power of many facets.”

3 This is true not only of these visions but of our ordinary experience
as well. All perception is symbolic through and through. When we see
a wooden door we see a symbol of a moment of the Brahman .

104 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Filled with great wonder the disciple sees, and in his soul
wells up the mystic Knowledge which bursts forth from his
lips in an ecstatic hymn.

Verse 15. Within that boundless Form he sees the Gods, Brahma, the
great creative Power, and archetypes of all things here on earth.
He sees the upward Path, the contemplative Rishis , also the
Serpent’s Way spiralling downwards in divinely urged desire . 1
Mouths, all-consuming, eyes of the infinite, all-seeing vision.
Verses arms wielding all things, bellies containing all; the Mace of
’ I7 ‘ Time’s all-dominating power, the shining Discus of its ever-
circling flight, the Crown of sovereignty, all these are seen in
a great blaze of boundless, world-consuming Light.

Perishing not throughout creation’s ages, this Being stands
for ever as the Treasure-House in which are stored the jewels of
Verse 18. the Cosmos. As Cosmic Order, It maintains eternal Dharma,
the Principle by which all things are linked to all in faultless
harmony:

“It seeth everywhere and marketh all:

Do right — it recompenseth! Do one wrong —

The equal retribution must be made.

Though Dharma tarry long.” 2 *

Verse 19. This is the immemorial Heavenly Man, the Adam Kadmon
of the Kabalistic wisdom; His eyes, the Sun and Moon, are
life and form 8 ; His mouth, a burning Fire, consumes the
worlds, life feeding on itself in ceaseless sacrifice.

The consciousness that streams through three great Halls,
Verse 20. the waking, “dreaming” and the “deep-sleep” states , 4 is
agitated in its ceaseless ebb and flow by the immortal “Fourth,”
the Flame which all may see but none can touch.

Verse 2i. The Maharshis and the Siddhas, mi ght y Teachers of the
past, exist inscrutably within that radiant Being. Christ,
Krishna, Buddha, all are there, and he who worships one
draws near to them all.

1 See verse 5 in the Vedic Creation Hymn given in Appendix F.

8 Light of Asia.

8 See Prashna Upanishad , i, 5.

4 See Appendix C.

THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM 105

Spanning the Void, leaping from earth to heaven, gleams the Verse 24.
great Rainbow Bridge whose substance is composed of all the
Gods. Upwards and downwards flash the waves of Light,
weaving the many-coloured garment of the One. Here are
the calm Adityas ; l 2 shining in their golden Light, and there the
stormy Maruts , 1 thrusting downwards with their flame-tipped
spears.

But there is terror in the Vision too, for in that Light all
forms are seen to pass. Only the Divine can live in the
Divine: all that is human dies upon the threshold. All that Verse 25.
in us which fears the so-called cruelty of nature, which trembles
at the ruthless ocean waves, all that which clings to form and
personality, sees Doom approaching it on flaming wings.

As in an earthquake men are filled with panic terror, not so
much by the actual physical dangers as by the feeling that the
solid earth, unconscious symbol of stability, is rocking shudder-
ingly beneath their feet, so in this Vision, self is seized by
terror, seeing its old familiar landmarks vanish in the Void.
Nowhere can self find any standing-place; all is dissolved
into an ever-changing fiery flux.

The hundred sons of Dhritarashtra who are the facets of Verse 26.
the lower self, Bhishma and Drona , faith and old tradition,

Karna , the mighty warrior, nobly clinging to ideals but finding
them in matter, all these are swallowed up in the great teeth
of never-resting Time. These selves of ours, to which we
ding so fiercely, are streams of psychic states linked each to Verse 28.
each by changeless causal law; and all these strea ms wind
through the fields of Time like rivers flowing swiftly to the
sea.*

No forms are permanent; all come and go according to

1 See Glossary.

2 Compare the experience of the Buddha on the night of attaining the
Sambodhi: “With the Divine eye which far surpasses human vision I saw
beings in the act of passing hence and of reappearing elsewhere — beings
high and low, fair or foul to view, in bliss or woe; I saw them all faring
according to their pasts” ( Majjhma Nikaya , sutta iv).

Compare also the Buddhist term for the individual self, santdna 9 meaning
“continuous flow.”

10 6 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Verse 29. their karma. Even the worlds, circling around the sun, are
but as moths which flutter round the lamp; their age-old
rocks and “everlasting hills” melt into nothing like the down
on the moth’s wings. Nothing remains but karma’s subtle
streams, flowing invisible to men, yet stronger than fine steel,
linking each pattern of the universe to all that went before.

Terror unutterable fills all self in man as he beholds
this world-devouring Fire. The image of a man-like, extra-
cosmic God, Creator of the worlds, is seen to be a dream of
men’s weak hearts, a dream that serves to hide from human
eyes the awful depths of Being’s shoreless sea. “This world
order, the same for all beings, neither any of the Gods hath
made, nor any man; but it was always, is and shall be ever-
living Fire, kindled in measure and quenched in measure.” 1
Verse 31. If one of unfirm heart should see this Vision he would recoil

within the self of use and wont, not daring further question
of the Infinite; but the strong soul of the well-tried disciple,
not rooted in the self but in the buddhi , goes out in aspiration
for yet deeper knowledge, seeking the One beyond these
fl amin g ramparts. What is this ever-flowing Emanation, this
Cosmic Fire that beats in flaming waves upon his heart?

And with the aspiration comes the answer; a Voice is
Verse 32. heard where there is none to speak; letters of Light float on
the waves of Fire. A sudden insight comes and the disciple
knows that what he sees is the great flux of Time,' Time
that is death to all things save the Soul. “Thus at the roaring
loom of Time I ply, and weave for God the garment thou
seest Him by.” 3 All forms are seen to come and go, over-
mastered by the cyclic waves of Time, but this insight brings

1 Heracleitus, Fragment D 30,

a The Time here spoken of js not the same as the abstract time of mathe-
matical physics. The latter is a mere mode of measurement of certain
relations between phenomena., and no very clear reason seems to be given
for the fundamental character of real time — namely, its irreversibility. The
Time here referred to is the great prime mover of the universe. It has
its root in Consciousness, of which, indeed, it is the active aspect. The
mental construct of a four-dimensional Space-Time continuum seems to
have little relevance here. To gain an understanding of real Time the
best starting-point is the power of selective attention found in consciousness.

* Goethe.

THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM 107

no tragic sense of loss such as inspired Villon’s Where are the
Snows of Yester Year? Rather, there comes a sense of great
deliverance, a sense of standing on the Eternal Rock around
which the surging waves for ever beat in vain. As from a
mountain height the traveller sees the road winding on towards
his destination, so, from this vantage-point of insight, the
disciple sees his Path and knows for certain that the obstacles
will pass.

From the Goal issues forth the Path; to It the Path returns;
both are within the Soul. Coming and going, bondage and
liberation, all are illusions which the light of jnana dispels.

For ever shines the Goal, shining in golden glory; seen from
another angle It itself becomes the Path. The Goal, the
Path and he who treads that Path are all the same; naught is
there anywhere save the One Being which, breathless, breathes
eternally within Itself.

It is impossible to state in words this wondrous insight.

All things remain the same yet all are changed. Time flashes
bodily into Eternity; the streaming Flux itself is the Eternal,
which, though It moves unceasingly, moves not at all.

This is the insight which makes the disciple what the
Buddhists termed an Anagamin , one who comes to birth no
more. Life and death have vanished in the Light of the
Eternal, and though yet a portion of the Path remains to
tread, it will be trodden with the knowledge that by Krishna
Himself “already are the foes all overcome” and that no Verse 33 -
separate treader of the Path remains.

Crowned with the diadem of insight, 1 the initiated disciple
gazes into the awful Mystery of Light in rapt adoration of
the Eternal, clothed in Its flaming Robes, and the mystic
Knowledge that now floods his soul pours forth in yet a further
hymn of ecstasy.

1 Note that the disdple is now (verse 35) referred to as “the Crowned
one.” This is a reference to the Crown of Knowledge given to the Initiate.

A parallel is to be seen in the Atef crown worn by Osiris in the Egyptian
Mystic Ritual and, according to Marsham Adams, placed on the head
of die Initiate after he has passed through the pylons and stands before
the Throne.

io8 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

These Hymns, parallels to which may be seen in the
Poemandres and Secret Sermon on the Mount of the Hermetic
books, are not to be confused with those of ordinary exoteric
religion. They are the natural outflow of the mind seeking
to give expression in mental terms to the great Knowledge
that now streams upon it, the ferment that takes place as all
the lower undergoes alchemical transmutation at the touch of
the Higher. The difference between the two Hymns should
be carefully noted. The first expresses chiefly awestruck
terror as the disciple sees his universe dissolve into the Cosmic
Fire; the second gives expression to the rapture with which
he sees, within the waves of flame, the s hinin g spiritual
Cosmos.

Gazing within, he sees that all is ruled by living spiritual
Law. Two mighty tidal urges rule the worlds and both of
them are living spiritual Powers. One is the movement of
the Rakskasas, fleeing as in fear to all the quarters of the
Universe. This is the great outgoing Creative Breath by which
not only is the universe spread forth in space, but all the
Verse 36. inner life of thought and feeling flows outwards seeking
whom it may devour. 1 This is the urge of self-assertion, self-
expansion, survival of the fittest, “nature red in tooth and
claw.” Here is the inner cause of war and all the selfish life
of competition, each for himself and devil take the hindmost,
but here, as well, the force behind man’s mind, wheeling in
ever-widening circles to receding frontiers.

The second movement, symbolised by hosts of Siddhas , is
the nivptti, Homeward-flowing Tide. By this all the rich
treasures of experience, the Fruits of the World Tree, are
gathered in once more to the One Life like mighty rivers
flowing homewards to the sea.*

He sees the Mighty Atman, source of both these Tides,

1 C 5 m I a F, PattrSnik accounts of creation in which Brahma first
created Rakskasas who promptly attempted to devour him That is to
aay, the outgoing forces would, if left to themselves, dissipate the univ erse
at once. The technical term for this outgoing is Fravritti.

For further discussion of these two movements see Chapter XVI.

THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM 109

the Primal Man of all the ancient Mysteries, the Cosmic
Treasure-House, the Realm of shining Light, Rnower and
Known both fused in unity. Glimpsed through the robes of Verses
Cosmic Ideation stands the unmoved Eternal, poised aloof, 37,38 ‘
Being, Non-being, That beyond them both, the Nameless
One, worshipped alone by silence of the mind.

The seven great Cosmic planes, here symbolised as Gods, Verse 39.
are all within that One, and though the disciple seeks to pour
forth all his soul in utter reverence, he knows not where to
turn, for now he sees that even the very earth on which he
stands is holy, and that around, above, below, within, without. Verse 40.
everywhere is the One and only One, containing all, from
lowest earthy clod to that unmanifest, transcendent Self
whose Light for ever shines beyond the worlds. 1

No longer can he think that He whom he has worshipped,
the Teacher in his heart. Friend of his nights and days, is any Verses
personal being, man or superman or God. Rather he sees 41 43 ‘
that, be the Form what it may, it was the Light of the Eternal
which, shining through loved but yet symbolic eyes, has led
him on the Path and is both Path and Goal.

But yet, while he is human, there must still be Forms for
him - He cannot bear for long the blaze of Light that floods Verse 44,
upon him, shattering all his being. No human mind and body
can for long endure upon the summits of eternal snow-clad
peaks. He must return once more to lower levels, the dazzling
Light be veiled in the familiar forms of Father, Lover, Friend;
for still the fourth stage of the Path remains to tread and, while
he needs a body, he must see the Light in human form.’

1 Compare the magnificent hymn of Hermes Trismegistus:

“Whither, again, am I to turn my eyes to sing Thy praise: above, below,

within, without? , ...

There is no way, no place is there about Thee, nor any other thing of things

AUarein Thee; all are from Thee, O Thou who givest all and takest

naught, „

For Thou ... art all and there is nothing else which Thou art not.

Henrietta Corpus* v, io.

2 The chaturbhuja form of verse 46 should be translated “four-limbed?*

(t„e. two arms and two legs) and not* as usually done, four-armed . Xne
word bhuja means limb as well as arm, and verses 49 and 51 clearly snow

IIO THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Therefore he sees once more the Form of his loved Teacher
in his own heart and in the hearts of all, though, as reminder
of the glorious Vision, the Form is Crowned and bears the
Verse 46. Mace and Discus, symbols of the Lord of Time. He knows
that He who sits within his heart is throned beyond all Time
and that, however thick the fight may press upon him, his
final victory is sure, since He who rules his heart rules all the
worlds.

Verse 47., Thus ends the Vision seen by union with the Self ( dtma
yogat ), ends as a vision though its Knowledge will remain
for ever in the heart of the disciple. Henceforth that inner
Knowledge must be the master-light of all his seeing, must
make “the noisy years seem moments in the being of the
eternal Silence.” Never may he forget what he has seen;
always must he realise “the voidness of the seeming full, the
fullness of the seeming void.” 1 For him, not as a poet’s
intuition, but in sheer fact, will it be true that

"... in a season of calm weather
Though inland far we be.

Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither;

Can in a moment travel thither —

And see the children sport upon the shore.

And hear its mighty waters rolling evermore.” 1

Verses Not Gods, the great impersonal waves of Light, nor men,
47-54- the separate selves of mind and body, “none but thyself,” the
immortal soul of man, has ever or will ever see this Cosmic
Form. No mystic rites, no study of philosophy, no harsh
austerities, no al ms or offerings, can show It, for all these are
of the mind alone. Only the power of love, the Soul’s own
power, love that for ever seeks to give itself, straining towards

that the form in question was a human one, four-limbed in contrast to the
thousand arms and legs of the symbolic vision. The Vishnu form, no
doubt, has four arms; but in the earliest texts, such as the Mahahhdrata^
Krishna has always the normal human two.

For this interpretation I am indebted to my friend Pandit Jagadish
Chandra Chatterji, Vidya Varidhi.

1 The Voice of the Silence.

1 Wordsworth’s Ode on the Intimations of Immortality ,

THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM nr

Eternity, can bring about the union of the self with the One
Self by which alone the Cosmic Form is seen and ultimately
entered.

Therefore the chapter ends with a reiteration of the Path, Veree 55.
a purely spiritual Path, one quite distinct from all the mystic
rites and outer pieties that most men term religion:

“Giving the self in love to Me, with Me as Goal, doing all
actions for Me (the One Life in all), devoid of all attachment
to the forms, free from hostility to any being, man comes to
Me, O Arjuna.” 1

1 This verse has been described by Shankardckarya as giving the
quintessence of the whole Gita.

CHAPTER XII

THE YOGA OF DEVOTION

It has already been pointed out that the Vision of the Cosmic
Form is not the same as the attainment of the final Goal. To
interpret this or the Beatific Vision of Western mysticism as
the Goal would be to ignore the whole structure of the Gita.
The Vision is, what it purports to be, a vision, not the attain-
ment, and we have seen that at its end the disciple returns to
the lower level, the level of form, once more. Before the
Goal is reached he will have to learn to live entirely in the
Reality, so to transmute his whole nature that not an atom
of the lower shall remain unredeemed. This subject, however,
will be referred to again later. In the meanwhile we have to
deal with a certain problem that has arisen out of the experience
of this Vision.

The disciple has seen the great Cosmic Form, the Mighty
Atman, the One Life manifesting in the world of beings, and
he has been told (xi, 54) that by devotion alone can that Form
be seen and entered. At the same time, he has also caught
a glimpse (xi, 37) of the unchanging Unmanifest behind the
Cosmic process and the doubt occurs to him whether this
devotion to the manifested Form, this acting for the One Life
in the hearts of all, can ever lead him beyond the manifest.
Doubdess, devotion to the Life of all will take him to that
Life; but will it take him further? Will it not leave him
there, just as devotion to the Gods strands men in the enjoy-
ment of heavenly bliss? Knowing that beyond even that
Verse 1, Mighty Atman lies the indestructible Unmanifest, should not
he rather resolutely turn his back on all manifestation, abstract
himself from every trace of form and bend all his energies on
one supreme attempt to bring about the flight of the alone to

112

THE YOGA OF DEVOTION 113

the Alone? Are these two separate Paths and, if so, which
is better ?

To this question Krishna replies that both he who is devoted Verse 2.
to Himself as the One Life in all, and he who worships the
Ineffable, Unthinkable, Eternal attain to Him, but that the Verse 5.
latter is a Path of surpassing difficulty for those who are
embodied — that is to say, for those who have the slightest
trace of self-identification with their bodies.

To understand this answer we must remember that in
chapter three, verse 4 et seq., the attempt to win through to
the Unmanifested Goal by a process of pure abstraction and
inactivity, the method of some Sankhyas, has been condemned
as utterly impracticable. Certainly it is not by turning one’s
back on all activity and refusing any commerce with form of
any kind that the Unmanifest is reached, for such a process
is impossible. It may be possible to toy in thought with such
a path but in reality it is scarcely a path at all. The Home-
ward Path must be a gathering-up of all the cosmic Fruits,
not a retreat, negating all experience, as if the cosmic process
were a cosmic blunder which never should have been.

There is, in fact, but one Path, and if we compare verse 4
of the present chapter, which defines the character of him
who worships the Unmanifest, with verses 13-19, which give
the character of him who is devoted to the Life in all, we see
that they are, in effect, the same.

Not by attempting an impossible rejection of the world of
Sense-experience but by “restraining and subduing the senses,”
not by trying to turn his back on all forms but by “regarding Verse 4.
all forms with an equal vision,” not by achieving a stony
indifference to the joys and sorrows of the world but by being
“devoted to the welfare of all beings,” does the true worshipper
of the Unmanifest Eternal attain his Goal.

If, then, both Paths are essentially the same, wherein lies Verse 5.
the special difficulty of the Path of the Unmanifested?,, It lies
in the fact that the worshipper of the Unmanifested has nothing
to which he can fasten his mind, for that One is beyond all

1 14 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

objects of sense, beyond even all concepts of the mind. The
point has been excellently stated by Plotinus: “The main
difficulty is that awareness of this Principle [i.e. the One]
comes neither by knowing nor by the pure Intellection [noSsis]
that discovers the Intellectual Beings [the Spiritual Powers
seen in the Vision], but by a presence overpassing all know-
ledge. . . . Our way takes us beyond all knowing; there may
be no wandering from Unity; knowing and knowable must all
be left aside; every object of thought, even the highest, we
must pass by, for all that is good is later than This and derives
from This as from the sun all the light of day.” 1

Even if the disciple thinks of It as God or as the Eternal
Mind he still, as Plotinus says, “thinks of It too meanly,” for
“God” connotes ideas of personality and the Eternal Mind
is “lower” than the One, being the level of the Cosmic
Ideation. Into that Silence how shall the disciple soar, what
steps are there to help him on his way? Not only is the One
beyond all thought but also the great wings which bear the
soul upon its upward flight, the wings of love, beat vainly in
that Void and the bruised soul falls back in desolation, losing
the forms but finding not the One beyond all form.

Fatally easy is it for the soul to sink back on the earth,
loveless and sterile. Appearances may be preserved but
yet the heart within is eaten all away and the disciple treads
the false unmanifested Path, rejecting forms as maya , fearing
even to do an act of mercy lest some bondage for his soul be
the result. “To perish doomed is he, who out of fear of
Mara refrains from helping man lest he should act for Self.” *

Therefore Sri Krishna recommends the other Path, the
manifested Path through the One Life. The One is the
same One, the Goal the same, but on this Path that One is
manifest within the hearts of all. This is the way that Plato,
too, has mentioned, rising from love of one to love of many,
from love of form to love of spiritual beauty, and so by steps

1 Plotinus, vi, 9, 3; the parts in brackets are for clearness.

2 Voice of the Silence. Thus in the original edition but “Self” should no
doubt read “self.”

THE YOGA OF DEVOTION

to That which is beyond. This also is the Path the Gopis showed,
first loving Krishna in His sensuous beauty, then feeling Him
in their own hearts and, lastly, with all selfhood gone, rising
to union with His Eternal Being . 1

On this Path the disciple does all actions not for himself Verses
but for the one loved Figure. For love he acts, for love he 6i 7 *
speaks and think s, and so by love he rises swiftly to the Goal.
Where there is love no sacrifice can be too great to be performed
with joy. Even animals will give their lives for love and
countless men have gladly gone to hideous deaths, counting
their pains a privilege that so the loved one, country, man, or
God, be served thereby.

“In this is seen why there is hope for man
And where we hold the wheel of life at will.” s

Here is the power lying in all men’s hearts by which to
scale the peaks of the Eternal. But, as its place within the
Gita shows, there must first be some knowledge, some desire
to tread the inward Path and reach the Goal. Without this
knowledge, faith, or aspiration there is no urge to soar beyond
the body, and love itself, dragged in the dust by self, turns to
desire and works a hideous ruin.

Nevertheless, if guided by knowledge and aspiration, there
is no force which will so powerfully bear the soul upwards as
that of love. This can be seen by its power to transmute and
render beautiful, if only temporarily, the lives of even quite
ordinary men. A selflessness which may take the yogi many
years of effort to attain along the path of conscious mind-
control and which, even then, may be a hothouse plant,
constantly menaced by the cold wind which comes from
fancying oneself a being apart from other men, may grow
quite healthily like a great forest tree in the rich soil of love.

It is just the absence of knowledge and aspiration that makes

1 For substantiation of this view, one which runs counter to some accepted
ideas, read Srimad Bkagawata, x, 29, v. 12; x, 47, v. 9 (and many others);
x, 82, v. 48, which clearly set forth these three stages. For the midale
stage many references might be given. ,

! Light of Asia. The original reads “thee,” not “this.’

n6 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

the transmuting power of love so short-lived as a rule. Love
which has power, when guided by true knowledge, to carry
even the body upwards with it in its soaring flight, is blinded
and its wings are clipped by the dark ignorance that sees no
reality but that of outward things. Thus it falls down upon
the earth, only to share the fate of all things earthly:

“And or ever the garden’s last petals are shed.

In the lips that had whispered, the hearts that had lightened.
Love lies dead.”

Verse 8. Therefore Sri Krishna urges the disciple to place his mind,
united with the luddhi, in Him and thus to live in the immortal
Life that is in all. 1 This “Him” will be at first the human
form that draws in love the heart of the disciple. That Form,
idealised by love and worship, will be a symbol of the Eternal
Mind and will transform into Itself the human soul. Once
more to quote Plotinus: “We shape ourselves into the Nous
(Eternal Mind); we make over our soul in trust to Nous and
set it firmly in That; then what That sees, the soul will waken
to see; it is through. Nous that we have vision of the Unity.”
Thus, if the eye of knowledge has heen opened , the Form will
seat itself within the heart and be a window through which
the soul takes flight into the blue.

Verse 9. The power to centre all the being in the Eternal Mind will
not, however, be attained at once. Abhyasa , or constant
practice, is required. The process is described in Shweta-
shwatara Upanishad with the aid of a metaphor taken from the
production of fire by the friction of two sticks: “Having
made one’s body (the lower self) the lower fire-stick and the
Pranava (the symbol of the Light of consciousness) the upper,
by the friction of continued practice (abhyasa) of meditation,
one should see the God hidden within.”

In plain words, the practice is one of constant withdrawal
from the desire-nature and constant self-identification with
the higher levels. This effort is twofold. In the first place

1 It must be remembered that love is rooted in the buddhi . See foot-
note to Chapter VIII, p. 74.

THE YOGA OF DEVOTION 117

there must be the effort to chum out the fire, as it were, the
attempt to isolate by analytic meditation on experience the
watching Self from the participating self. In the second place
there must be the effort of the will to identify one’s being with
the former and from there to rule the latter. If this twofold
practice is persisted in it will inevitably culminate in the
ability to centre oneself permanently in the Eternal Mind.

If, however, the disciple finds himself as yet unable to Verse 10.
perform this meditative practice, he should devote him self to
Krishna’s service. All life, whether in men, in animals, or
plants, is a manifestation of the One Eternal Life which in a
thousand forms seeks to express Itself in mastery of matter.

Behind the struggling forms, behind the petty personalities of
men, surge the great tides of Life, beating in tireless power
against the narrow confines of the forms. Let the disciple
live in such a way that all his acts will help that Life to manifest.

Let him “help Nature and work on with her,” striving
incessantly with all the obstacles that thwart the beauty, bliss
and power that are, even now, within the hearts of all.- And
thus, forgetful of himself, a time will come when he will find
himself one with that Life to which his heart is- given; per-
forming all his deeds for Krishna’s sake, he will attain the
Goal.

, If even selfless, love-inspired action is out of reach yet one Verse n.
way still remains: he may perform his actions for himself but
yet renounce the fruits. Unable to attain the level of action
for the welfare of all beings, let him act for himself but from
a sense of duty. Let him do what is right, resigning all the
fruits into the hands of that disposing Power which some call
God, others. Eternal Law. 1 In order to achieve this duty-
prompted action he must take refuge in the Yoga of Krishna,
the Sovereign Yoga in which the Eternal Light unites with

1 The difference between the former type of action and this is that*
while the former disciple acts with the thought of service of the Life in
all, the latter acts without any such definite thought but does what seems
to be right for him himself. The former feeds the hungry out of love*
the latter because he knows that it is right to be charitable.

Ii8 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

forms and yet is ever separate. In practice this means that he
must be refuged in the buddhi, the faculty which gives decisive
knowledge. In still earlier stages, when the buddhi is as yet
out of reach, it means that he must unite his lower mind with
“Sanjaya,” the voice of the higher speaking as conscience, and
make that voice the guide and ruler of all his acts. The voice
of conscience is, as we have seen before, in some sense a
“reflection” of the buddhi, the chief difference being that, while
the buddhi sees the truth as an all-embracing whole, the con-
science, as befits a principle on the hither side of individuation,
sees but a single point, the point needed at the moment, and
speaks with certainty concerning that alone.

The buddhi is a faculty that all possess though few make use
of it. It is the Light that shines between the eyes, the Voice
that speaks in silence in the heart. To see that Light the fleshly
eyes must close, to hear that Voice the fleshly ears be deaf.
Only when, for the time at least, the clamour of desire is stilled
can that internal monitor be heard which is the Voice of
Krishna. Guided by that Voice the disciple will see before
him the dear path of duty and, if he treads it, find himself
beyond the conflict of his heart’s desires.

Verse 12. This is the easiest path. To clamour for an easier one than
this is to cry, child-like, for the moon, to flutter feeble wings
against the iron ramparts of Eternity, to ask for what has never
been nor, indeed, ever shall be. Renunciation of the fruits of
action to follow duty’s path has thus been praised as best
because it is the easiest of all paths, and from its practice all
the rest will follow. Renouncing fruits, the heart will fill with
peace and in that peace the yoga of practice will be possible.
•From practice follows knowledge of the Truth and that un-
changing state of meditation in which, waking or sleeping, in
action or repose, the inner Self will live in the Eternal.

But some will ask why, at this stage, is all this talk of
inability, why this insistence on the easier path? Surely the
earlier stages have been long ago accomplished; has not the
glorious Cosmic Form been seen? Such a question shows a

THE YOGA OF DEVOTION 119

lack of knowledge about the way of climbing on this Path.

Great heights, indeed, have been attained, but not by the
whole being. A climber on a mountain face first reaches for
a hand-hold on the rock above him and, that having been
securely grasped, pulls with great effort his whole body up-
wards. Just so the climber of the Path aspires with all that
which is best in him, attains a hand-hold on the heights of
vision, but then must pull his lower nature upwards till his
whole being stands firmly on the summit.

Plotinus too asks the question how it is that the soul cannot
keep the level it has achieved, and answers that it is “because
it has not yet escaped wholly: but there will be the time of
vision unbroken, the self hindered no longer by any hindrance
of body. Not that those hindrances beset that in us which
has veritably seen; it is the other phase of the soul that suffers,
and that only when we withdraw from vision and take to
knowing by proof, by evidence, by the reasoning processes of
the mental habit.”

Hence all the recapitulation in the teaching. That which
was done for part must now be done again for the whole being
that all may be regenerate, so that the flashing light of vision
may change into the steady blazing of the sun shining beyond
the darkness.

Sri Krishna now goes on to set forth, in verse thirteen to
the end, the characteristics of the follower of the path of
bhakti. v It has already been stated that these characteristics are
the same in substance as those of the follower of the true path of
the Unmanifested. Too often is the path of bhakti mistaken
for an abandonment to a frothy, uncontrolled emotionalism.

What the real path of bhakti is may be seen from a study of
these verses. The qualities enumerated must be built into his
character by the disciple.

Bearing ill-will to none, he looks on all with love and great Verse 13.
compassion, for he knows that He who smiles as friend and He
who frowns as foe are One, the One great Life, struggling to
manifest through countless passing forms.

120 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Verse 14. Knowing that all that comes to him of joy or grief is but the
fruit of his own actions in the past, he is content and strives for
nothing finite but, with the mind clinging through buddhi to
the One Eternal, stands like a rock amidst the surge of Time.

Verse 15. To none is he a source of grief nor does he let himself feel
grief at other’s words or deeds, for he knows well that pain
inevitably returns to him who caused it and he cares not to be
the cause of pain, even the unwitting cause, to those who are in
fact his own true Self. He who feels grief at others’ words is
like a wall reflecting back that grief upon the causer, but he who
puts aside all fear, elation, or impatient anger makes himself
like the sea, which buries all in peace. By this means the sum
of pain and hatred in the world is actually decreased, and thus
we understand the meaning of the Buddha’s words: “Not by
hatred but by love does hatred end; this the eternal Law.”

Verse 16. Seeking nothing for himself, he renounces every undertaking,

that is to say, he renounces the fruits of all his actions, for, as
will be shown later, 1 * the renunciation of action itself is neither
fitting nor even possible for one who is embodied. Acting
solely for the One who is in all, his acts are expert, passionless
and pure. Note the word expert (daksha). There are some
who in the name of devotion give up their grip on life and
muddle through all things, making spirituality an excuse for
unpracticalness. The true disciple is no mere ecstatic dreamer,
one so dazzled by the white eternal Light that he sees not his
way among the shadows here. , Rather, since “yoga is skill in
action,” he shows by the fact that he performs all actions bettor
than other men, that this Path leads to mastery of the world,
not to a weak withdrawal.

Verses 4 If skill in action is one of the definitions of yoga, balance of

I7s r8 ' mind (samatwa) is the other. 3 The ordinary man is ruled by
the pairs of opposites, cold and heat, pleasure and pain, friend-
ship and enmity, attraction and repulsion. His life is one
perpetual oscillation between these pairs, but the yogi is one

1 See Gita, xviii, verses 2 and n, where the subject is treated in full.

* Gita, ii, verse 48.

THE YOGA OF DEVOTION

121

whose mind is balanced beyond their sway and whose life is
guided, not by the blind forces of attraction and repulsion, but
by one deep-seated urge to give himself in service of the one
great Life of all.

Even ideas of good and evil, as those words are understood
by men, no longer sway his acts. Those two great words,
which all invoke so freely to justify their acts or to condemn
their enemies, are, at the best, constructions of the mind, and
he now lives rooted in realms beyond. He thus transcends
them both and knows but one great Law, to help the play of
the Eternal Life as It shines forth or hides Itself in forms.

Whether his actions bring him praise or blame, whether Verse 19.
they harmonise with men’s ideas of moral law or, as may
sometimes happen, they depart entirely from what most men,
even most good men, think right, is a matter of indifference
to him. This may seem dangerous doctrine but it is the truth.

What most men call ethics is an affair of actions and their
consequences and, as we have seen, the disciple is one who has
renounced all concern with personal consequences. He is not
lawless for he knows one all-transcending Law — obedience
to the voice of the Great Teacher in his heart . 1 * * * * * * 8 That Sound-
less Voice, speaking within his heart, drowns for him all the
clamorous judgments of the world. Listening ever to the
Voice of that inner Lord, he pursues his way “unperturbed as
the earth is unperturbed, firm as a pillar, clear as a waveless
lake.” 1

Like the pure mountain air that blows among the pines. Verse 19.
fertilising all and yet attached to none, the disciple moves about
amids t the throng of men. * Whether he lives in crowded cities
or on lonely mountain peaks he is a Homeless One, for though

1 This should not be taken as supporting ordinary amorality: these

words apply solely to the disciple who is selfless enough always to hear

the Voice of the Teacher, balanced enough always to discriminate it from

other voices, and devoted enough always to obey its commands.. Till

then, no merely intellectual insight into their limitations should justify

a man in disregarding the accepted moral laws. The fate that overtook

Nietzsche stands as a solemn warning.

8 Dhammapada , 95.

122 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

he may fulfil all social duties, yet neither family, nor caste, nor
race holds him in bondage. In the words of Hermes, he is
“one who has struck his tent,” and though he may not wear the
outer garb of a samyasi, yet of no place in all the world does he
feel “this is mine; here I belong.”

Verse 20. Such is the path of bhakti. Those who follow it, not for
the sake of their own soul’s salvation, but as the service 1 of
that one Eternal Wisdom which gives true Life to all who
drink its waters, they, the beloved disciples, shine like lights
amidst the darkness, servants of the Eternal Krishna, crest-
jewels of the world.

1 The word paryupasana has the primary meaning of “to attend upon 3
to serve.” The usual rendermg as “worship” is a secondary one, and
obscures the meaning here.

CHAPTER XIII

THE YOGA OF DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE FIELD AND THE
KNOWER OF THE FIELD

We have now reached the beginning of the third section of
the Gita, and before commencing the study of the actual
chapter it is necessary to say a few words of a general nature.
In this last block of six chapters are contained detailed teach-
ings of a philosophic nature. Many of them have been out-
lined before, but to have set them forth in full in the earlier
chapters would have interrupted the flow of the exposition.
Moreover, too much emphasis on systematic explanation
during the earlier stages of the Path is apt to develop intel-
lectual grasp at the cost of intuitive perception. But, as
cannot be too strongly emphasised, the Path is the path to
mastery of the world, and now that the disciple has a firm
hand-hold on the heights of vision, it is necessary that his
intellect, suffused by the Spiritual Light, should have a clear
grasp of the principles of the cosmos in which he is to work.
Hence the effect of slight anticlimax that some readers of the
Gita find in these chapters.

i, The first thing that has to be understood is the division
between consciousness and the objects which that conscious-
ness observes. If we examine our experience we find that it
is composed of a number of concrete forms all lit up by the
light of consciousness. 1 This is the distinction between the
Field — that is, the field of consciousness — and the Rnower of
the Field, the dear light of awareness itself. Reflection will
show that the physical body which the ignorant foolishly
suppose to be lie self is but the focus in which the forms
1 See Appendix A.

124 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

or data of our sense-experience are, as it were, collected. The
materialist’s idea of the body as standing in its own right, as
a collection of flesh, bones, nerves and so forth, is an artificial
mental construction obtained by abstraction from conscious
experience, useful, like many other abstractions, for purposes
of scientific understanding but an irrelevance in the realm of
metaphysics.

But the analysis of experience does not stop here. If the
disciple abstracts the light of the witnessing consciousness
from all the witnessed forms, the forms of sense, of feeling,
or of thought, he will perceive at once that the light is not
something which is different in different beings, but something
like the sunshine which is the same whether illuminating
the blue sea or the red earth. That light of consciousness,
though associated with an individual point of view, is some-
thing which can only be described as all-pervading, something
which, however different may be the Fields which are illmnined,
is the same in an ant as in a man, the same even, though science
may not yet be ready to admit it, in a piece of rock as in a
living being.

The disciple is now in a position to understand why Sri
Verse 2. Krishna says that He, the Atman , the all-seeing Consciousness,

' is the Knower of the Field in all Fields. If he will follow up
this distinction between the Field and its Knower in his own
heart, the disciple will find himself on the highroad to an
understanding of the Cosmos; he will have a clue to guide
him through the mazes of this world.

The beginning lies here in the midst of our sense-experience,
for it must be emphasised that the Gita’s teaching is not
concerned with wondrous far-off things but with what lies
right here to hand, would we but open our eyes and see.
Again it must be said: “What is There is here; what is not
here is nowhere.” So clearly shines this truth that he who
has seen it once cannot understand why he was blind so long.
He has lit his lamp and truly the effect is like a sudden shining
of a light in a dark place. “Within you is the Light of all

THE FIELD AND KNOWER OF FIELD 125

the world”: so all the ancient Seers have always said and
now their words blaze with a vivid light in which all false
belief and superstitions die like candles in the sun. “Know-
ledge as to the Field and the Knower of the Field, that in my
opinion is Wisdom.”

. The Field, or content of experience, has been analysed by Verse 5.
the ancient Teachers into twenty-four tattvas, or principles.

First come the five great elements, known symbolically as
earth, water, fire, air and space. 1 * * * * Connected with these are
the five contents of our sense-experience, smell, taste, visual
form, touch and sound. Next come the eleven senses, five
the faculties by which we gain knowledge of the external
world, five those by which we react upon that world, and
the eleventh the (lower) mind, the mind which functions as
the co mm on inner sense. Then comes the ego centre ( ahan -
kara ), elsewhere called higher mams, the buddhi (here, as
often taken with mahat, being the intuition which gives
knowledge of that Cosmic Ideation), and lastly Mula-prakriti
itself, the great unm anifested matrix of all forms.*

These principles constitute the frame or skeleton on which
the universe of forms is built. It should be noted that only
the lowest of them are what we call material and that the
other levels are what we should class as mental. Their
modifications are known to us in the form of desire, aversion,
pleasure, pain, thought, feeling and so forth, but nevertheless all Verse 6.
of them are objective to the light of consciousness and make
up in totality the content of experience, for it is to be observed
that the feelings and thoughts, no less than the sensations,
are analysable into a content-form and the awareness of it.

There follows a list of qualities which are said to constitute
Wisdom in the sense, that is, that they are the qualities which Verses
lpad up to Wisdom. They are all calculated to cause a per- 7 ~ 10 '

1 See Appendix H. . _ ,

a Space forbids more than the merest enumeration of these tattvas .

For a detailed study of them the reader is referred to any book on the

Samkhya, and especially to the excellent account given in J. C. Chatterji s

India’s Outlook on Life” (Kailash Press, New York).

126 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

ception of the fact that all these objective forms are not the
Self, or, in the Buddha’s words, “this is not mine, I am not
this, this is not my Self.” 1 Thus is brought about a cessation
of that process of projection by which the Light is bound
Verse 11. within the passing forms and the Eternal Wisdom is attained,
the knowledge of the ever-changeless Self, witnessing all and
yet attached to none.

For that Eternal Self is what is to be known, “which being
Verse 12. known imm ortality is enjoyed.” It is the great transcendental
Atman 2 which, being unmanifest, is neither being nor non-
being. It is the one Subject of all objectivity whatever, every-
where having hands and feet, everywhere ears and eyes.

. When it is said that “It standeth enveloping all” it is no piece
Verse 13. of meaningless religious rhetoric but a plain description of
that wondrous seeing Light, that great “awaring” holding in
Its bosom each grain of dust in all the countless worlds.

One of the greatest difficulties in understanding such books
as the Gita lies in the fact that we have got used to reading
them in a special “holy” mood in which, even if we “believe”
the facts described, we surround them with a supernatural
aura, thus placing them out of relation with the actual world
of life. But this is fatal; we must learn to see that what is
being described is what is here around us and can be seen
just now even though long ages may elapse before we plumb
the shoreless Sea of Light.

The Ancient Wisdom is inscribed in glowing letters in the
akasha of the heart: let the disciple plunge within and read
its message for himself. He will find that the deathless
Consciousness within, though separate from all the organs of
sense, yet shines with their powers. In fact the apparent
Verse 14. power of the eye to see depends entirely on the power of
vision inherent in that Light which sees through the eye but

1 Majjhima Nikaya , i 3 135,

2 The Gita here uses the term param Brahma but what is meant is the
Un m a n i f ested Self (see the chapter on Gita viii), what the Kathopanishad
terms the Shanta Atman , for the parabrahman itself is not strictly speaking
an object of knowledge at all. For most purposes, however, the two may
be taken as one and, indeed, are often so considered. See Appendix E.

THE FIELD AND KNOWER OF FIELD 127

which the eye does not see; which hears through the ear but
which the ear does not hear; which thinks through the mind
but which the mind does not think.

“It is the unseen Seer, the unheard Hearer, the unthought
Thinker. Other than It there is no Seer, no hearer, no
thinker. It is the Self, the Inner Ruler, the Deathless.” 1

It supports everything in the sense that It holds all forms
within Its embrace, and were Its support withdrawn, even
for a moment, all things would collapse at once. Witnessing
all, It is attached to naught, so that experiences of pleasure
and pain are as one to Its impartial gaze. Although It is the
enjoyer of all qualities yet It itself is free from quality ( nirguna ).

In fact, this qualitylessness or “neutrality” is, notwithstanding
the views of certain theologians, one of the first aspects to
be noticed.

Though the Light shines within the hearts of men and it
is in the heart that It is first perceived, it would be a mistake Verse 15.
to suppose that It is only there and not in the outer world
as well. 8 The heart is a focus through which It shines but
It is equally “outside” us, for the entire content of experience
floats in Its all-supporting waves:

“As a cloud that hides the moon, so matter veils
The Face of Thought.” 8

So subtle is It that, though all-pervading. It is unperceived
by men and, though “nearer to us than breathing,” yet there
is no cosmic depth so far away but It is farther still. From
Its profound abyss this universe in which we live and all the
island universes in the Cosmos are seen to shrink into a starry
cluster no bigger than a man’s hand.

Its firm immovability supports the universal “changeless”

1 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad , iii, 7, 23. See also Kenopamshad, where
the Gods (sense-powers) find themselves unable to perform their functions
without the help of the Brahman (the Light).

2 Compare The Secret of the Golden Flower: “The Light is not in the
body alone, neither is it only outside the body. Mountains and rivers
and the great Earth are lit by sun and moon; all that is this Light. There-
fore it is not only within the body/*

3 No Flays . Trans, by Arthur Waley.

128 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

laws of science and yet that firmness is a living one, and gleams
with inner motion whence arises all the movement in the
Cosmos.

Verse 1 6 . Just as the sun, or, better still, the daylight, is one and yet

is, as it were, distributed in all reflecting objects, so is the
T.ighr a perfect unbroken unity notwithstanding that It appears
divided by self-identification with the separate forms. In
speaking of It we cannot avoid the language of paradox. It
has already been said that a certain “neutrality” is one of Its
most characteristic features, and yet it would be entirely
wrong to think of that neutrality as something dull and
featureless; rather, it is a calm and shining bliss.

Similarly, it is only too easy to misunderstand Its actionless-
ness which, together with the neutrality, is one of the first
characteristics to become clear to the disciple. In spite of
this fact, and that it is a fact no one who has experience will
deny, and notwithstanding the categorical statement in verse 29

Verse 16. that all actions spring from the Mula-prakriti, yet it remains
true that the creation, preservation and destruction of the
forms are rooted in the nature of the Light.

Words fail us here: we must plunge deeper yet within the
heart and see that in that mystic inactivity, within its very
being, lurks Divine creative power. It gazes and the forms
spring into being; gazing, It holds them fast; ceasing Its
gaze, they fall back in the matrix once again. Here lies the
mystery of the Will both in the macrocosm and the microcosm.
The Will, even the individual will, is not the creature of mere
outward forms. A Divine freedom is its very essence: the
Light has an inherent power to gaze or not to gaze, also to
change the level of Its gazing. 1 This cannot be described;
it must be seen and known within the heart. Failure to
understand this mysterious actionless activity has disastrous
consequences, for it transforms the central Fount of joyful,
radiant Light into a static Absolute, an eternal Futility, throned
in the heart of being.

1 See ante, the end of Chapter III.

THE HELD AND KNOWER OF FIELD 129

No worship of the Gods, no outer ritual, no mantras ,
prayerful pieties, or magic touch of saints can be a substitute
for the heart’s Knowledge by which alone that Wisdom can
be reached. Only the clear, far-shining light of Mind can
ming le with that Light, the Light of lights, and pierce beyond
the Darkness to the Goal. “By the Mind is It to be gained,”
say the Upanisbadic seers and Hermes, too: “this Mind in
men is God and for this cause some of mankind are Gods and
their humanity is nigh unto Divinity.”

So far we have been studying the Field and its Knower
chiefly with a view to their separation 1 ; we have now to
glance at the mode of their interaction. In the first place Verse 19.
it is to be noted that, if not the Field itself, its source the
Mula-prakriti is, like the Knower, the Purusha , or Shdnta
Atman, beginningless. These two are, as we saw in chapter
eight, the two unmanifested moments of the Parabrahman.

On account of the mysterious selective gazing of the Self
the Mula-prakriti manifests in a graded universe of forms
and qualities. The following quotation will perhaps be of
interest as showing that modern physics is feeling its way to
a substantially similar view:

“The physicist’s world is a spatio-temporal flux of events
whose characteristics are limited to severely mathematical
(i.e. abstract , ideal, non-sensory ) properties. Upon them the
mind imposes, or from them it selects (accounts differ) certain
patterns which appear to possess the quality of comparative
permanence. These patterns are worked up by the mind
into continuing objects and become the tables and chairs of
daily life. . . . Different minds with different interests,
selecting different patterns, would ‘perceive’ different worlds.”*

The last sentence is of particular interest as throwing light
on the nature of the different levels or lokas, for the hypo-

1 Compare this with the Mamchcean doctrine that it is the duty of the
faithful to separate out all the particles of Light that are entangled 111
darkness of matter. In Mam’s hands, however, the doctrine seems to
have stopped at a dualism. , , . ,

* Return to Philosophy, by C. E. M. Joad. The italicised poinon has

been added.

II

I 3 0 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

thetical different minds of the writer have real existence as
the different levels of consciousness.

Verse 20. The Mula-prakriti , then, is the root of the causally inter-

linked series of spatio-temporal events, but that that series
should manifest as living sequences of sensation, feeling and
thought, pleasant or painful, is due to the Light of Purusha ,
the witnessing consciousness. The latter, gazing on the flux,
draws out from it the patterns which on any given level are
to achieve significance as objects and in so doing identifies
itself with them.

Just as a spectator at a cinema, seated in self-contained
comfort, experiences joy and sorrow through self-identification
with the patches of light and shade that make up the pictures
Verse 21. on the screen, so the free, blissful nature of the Self is or
appears to be stained by joy and sorrow arising from the
purely neutral flux. Birthless and deathless. It is bom and
dies with forms Itself evoked and gazed Itself into.

This union of the seeing Self with forms takes place not all
Verse 22. at once but on five levels 1 which are enumerated here from
below upwards, but which it will be more convenient to
consider in their order of evolution. Beyond all levels is
the Parabrahman, here styled the highest Purusha , in which
seer, seen and seeing are all merged in one. In that incon-
ceivable Abyss a movement of limitation takes place as a
result of which, abstract, unmanifested Selfhood, here termed
the One Enjoyer , the Great Lord, the Transcendental Atman,
as it were settles out and contemplates with calm aloofness
the other moment of the Parabrahman appearing as the un-
manifested Matrix. 8

Gazing selectively on that Matrix, a process of self-
identification with various aspects of it takes place, and thus
we have the second level, here termed the Supporter, the One
Life. Out of the infinite potentialities of the first level a
certain number have been selected (in accordance with the

1 Compare Gita, viii, verse 9. See also diagram in Appendix E.

* See Appendix F.

THE FIELD AND KNOWER OF FIELD 131

sanskaras or karmik tendencies remaining over as seeds from
the previous manifestation) to form the basis of a universal
manifestation and are hence known as the Cosmic Ideation.

The third level, that of the buddhi, is not separately men-
tioned here. Buddhi and Mahat are often taken together and
in later books they came to be completely identified. The
former may be considered as the purely cognitive aspect of
the latter. The difference between the two is not easy to
explain; attaining the level of the buddhi, one is in touch with
the Mahat.

The fourth level is here termed the Sanctioner or Inner
Ruler. It is the level of the Higher Mind in which, out of
the all-grasping, all-uniting levels of buddhi-mahat, the Light
selects a given point of view and thus becomes the individual
Self. Hence arise the countless separate individuals. The
“content” of experience on this level is, though grouped with
reference to an individual viewpoint, of a non-sensory nature,
what some would, perhaps wrongly, term abstract. It is
what the Buddhists term the rupa loka as opposed to the
arupa loka of the buddhi-mahat and the kama loka of the fifth
(and sixth) levels.

The fifth level is that of concrete sensing, feeling and
thinking. Out of the “abstract” possibilities of the fourth,
the Ligh t (the same Light, it should be noted) selects the
concrete patterns which It works up into the objects of sense
and feeling which are the content of our ordinary conscious-
ness. This is the level of the sense or desire life and on it
the Light is known as the upadrashta, Overseer or Watcher.

Strictly speaking this fifth level may be divided into two
according to whether the concrete patterns which form its
content are these “inner” ones that we term dream images,
fantasy images, or merely images, or whether they are these
“outer” sense-data from which we infer physical objects.
As they are both of similar nature the Gita does not count
them as separate levels though sometimes they are so counted.
If reckoned separately they would form a sixth level. Similarly

l 3 2 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

the seven of some traditions are accounted for by taking the
buddhi as separate from the mahat. 1

The so-called physical objects, tables and chairs, as opposed
to the coloured and other sensory shapes of perception are
but inferred or imagined causes with which we explain to
ourselves the observed regularities in the data of sense, the
data of the upadrashta level. They form a sort of under-
world, an eighth world of pure Maya, peopled by ghosts with
no reality. And yet it is these “ghosts” that are the basis
of the materialism which vaunts itself as rooted in realities!

The importance of this knowledge cannot be overestimated,
for it enables the disciple to see that even on the lowest levels
the Self is one in all. He will be able to see with perfect
clarity what he was taught long ago in chapter two— namely,
that the Self cannot be pierced or injured, cannot be bom or
die. The separate self, that burden on his back for which
he felt anxieties, hopes and fears, is seen to be illusion and
with calm heart he can address himself to the Great Work
with its two aspects: first, of climbing up the Ladder of the
Soul by identifying himself with higher and ever-higher levels
of consciousness, and second, of transmuting the lower levels

Verse 23. by irradiating them with the Light of the higher. Although
it may be several lives before the Heights are scaled yet is he
bom no more, being the birthless Light.

Verse 24. Several methods exist to reach this Knowledge. Some by

the mind’s dear vision see the Self within the self, wi thin
the body even. They see that even the lower is what it is
because drawn forth and upheld by the Light and thus they
meditate upon that Light within all forms. Others follow
the path of the Sankhya and reject the forms as not the Self.
Unable to escape from dualism, they analyse away all content
of experience as forms of Prakriti. Rejecting thus the lower,
what remains is Self, or Purusha, not in the world but, star-
like, far apart.

Verse 25. t Others attain the same result by the Yoga of Action,

1 See Appendix E.

THE FIELD AND KNOWER OF FIELD 133

transcending self by acting for the one great Self of all. Still
others hear the Truth from teachers or, in modem times,
read of it in the writings of great Seers and, as they read, some
inner feeling wakes telling them of its truth and they adhere
with faith to what they hear. These also tread the Path of
Life. 1

Thus it has now been seen that all beings arise from union
of the Light with forms. He who allows his mind to Rin k
the Light in the illumined forms, to feel “this form is me,
these forms are mine,” turning his back on immortality, he
slays his own true Self. Let him open the eyes of the heart
amidst the surrounding blackness and see the mighty Ruling Verses
Power, the wondrous Light seated within all beings. Let 26-29 '
him see that It is unperishing within the forms that perish;
see that It is the same in all and see that all the fret and
fume of action is but the interplay of form with form and has
no power to soil the stainless, all-supporting Light which,
actionless, yet draws them forth from the great Matrix.

,, When he has seen all this (and even here and now it can be
seen) a calm liberation will come to his spirit. He will perceive
the great diversity of forms standing together in one mighty Verse 30.
Being. The best method of trying to understand this unity,
which is by no means a blank and featureless one, is to con-
template a constellated system of thoughts in one’s own mind,
a system in which no thought is anything except in relation
to the rest of the system, in which all are one by virtue of their
interlinkedness and, above all, by virtue of the fact that all
have their being in one beam of consciousness.

Anyone who has served in a regiment knows the sense of
being set free from the burden of self that comes from feeling
oneself a part of a larger whole. There, however, the ab-
sorption is only partial and is often mixed with much that is
undesirable. The perception of the great Unity gives such
a wonderful liberation just because the self is completely and

1 This “faith” is not the same as blind belief. Discussion of its nature
is postponed to Chapter XVII.

Verses

31 - 34 .

134 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

absolutely absorbed in That of which it is a part and because
it is not something alien in which the self is lost but one’s own
Self.

Without beginning, parts, or limitations, untouched by
actions even though seated in the body, the Sun of Conscious-
ness irradiates the Space of Thought. He who has seen Its
calm, immortal shining feels no more fear in all the triple
world. He knows that all the whirling flux of sense has its
sole being in that radiant Light: he is himself the Light, the
Stainless, the Serene. For him —

“In the wind of the hill-top, in the valley’s song,

In the film of night, in the mist of morning.

Is it proclaimed that Thought alone
Is, Was and Shall be .” 1

1 From a Japanese No play. Translated by Arthur Waley.

CHAPTER XIV

THE YOGA OF THE DIVISION OF THE THREE GUN AS

Having set forth the distinction between the Field and its
Knower (in Sankhyan terms, the Prakriti and Purusha ) the
Gita now turns to the further analysis of the Field. The Root
or Mula-prakriti, termed in verse 3 the Great Brahman , is
characterised by three moments known as gunas. The word
gum is usually translated as quality, but it should be borne in
mind that there is here no question of a substance-quality
relationship between the Mula-prakriti and the gums. The
gunas are the Mula-prakriti and the latter is the gunas in a state
of equilibrium. For this reason some have preferred to speak
of the three Strands the totality of which make up the twisted
rope of manifested being.

In order to understand something of the nature of these
gunas it is necessary to remember that the Mula-prakriti is not
a substance standing in its own right but a dark matrix full
of unlimited potentialities, the appearance of the Parabrahman
to the abstracted Light of Consciousness? Its potentialities
are unlimited because it is the whole objective aspect of the
Parabrahman and it is “dark” because the Light has been
abstracted as the Atman. While it would be a mistake to
equate it with the collective unconscious of Jung, yet the
comparison will give a truer understanding of its nature than
any study of those neatly intellectualised diagrams to be found
in most books on Sankhya.

Under the contemplative gaze of Consciousness, three
tendencies manifest themselves within the Matrix. One
moment of it reflects the Light and is irradiated by It, itself
becoming, like a fluorescent substance, an apparent source of

135

i 3 6 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

light. This is the moment known as sattva guna and it has the
characteristic of radiance (prakasha ). 1

A second moment as it were transmits the Light, not
reflecting it back towards the Source but ever speeding it
onwards and outwards. This moment is known as the guna
of rajas, having as its characteristic outward-turned movement
(pravritti).*

The third moment neither reflects nor transmits but absorbs
the Light that falls upon it. This is the guna of tamas,
characterised by a stagnant inertia, a heedless indifference. 8

The operation of the gurias can be observed in the micro-
cosmic matrix of unconsciousness from which we wake each
morning. First from the dark background of dreamless sleep
arise a set of memories which by reflecting back the con-
sciousness proclaim: “I was, I am.” Next rajas comes into
operation and the contemplative self is swept away along the
crests of associated ideas into desire-filled plans of: “I will
do.” Still later the fluid universe of thought ossifies under
the veiling power of tamas into the outer world of rigid objects
which, though in truth sustained by consciousness alone, yet
seem to be hard lifeless things existing in their sheer inert
material right and amongst which the planning self of dawn
only too often passes from itself under the dull compulsion of
the outer.

In the macrocosm we see the same processes at work.
First by the operation of the Light on sattva arise the calm
and light-filled worlds of mahat-buddhi , the Cosmic Memory
which is the Cosmic Imagination. The radiance and harmony of
those worlds arise from their sattvik nature, and Krishna’s
direction to stand firmly in sattva (nitya sattvastha, chapter ii,
v. 45) has the same meaning as his constant counsel to be ever
united with the buddhi (buddhi-yukta).

As the Cosmic manifestation proceeds we find the mobility
of rajas coming into play. Out of the Light-filled unity of the
spiritual worlds arise the many points of view which form the
1 Verses 6, rx, 22. 1 Verses I2 3 22. * Verse 13.

YOGA OF DIVISION OF THE THREE GUNAS 137

mental ( manasik ) level. The movement of the Light as it is
transmitted through the Field gives rise to point-like individual
selves from which the Light radiates in a network of inter-
secting lines of experience. 1

The upper worlds are Spinozistic in their general nature.
The attributes and modes shine forth in a majestic and im-
personal unity, rising and falling like the ocean swell beneath
the Moon of Light. But in the mental world of rajastk
plurality we pass into a Leibnizian world of monads in which
each monad mirrors the universe from a given point of view
and thus, though separate from its fellows, is united with them
in the ideal unity of all. The main difference is that Leibniz’s
monads were “windowless” and could perceive nothing but
their own inner states, while these monads are not thus shut
in but are, in truth, each a window through which the One
looks out upon Itself. 1

But the effect of rajas does not stop at pure plurality, or,
rather, in plurality itself is found the basis of the next tendency.
Once the unity has been lost the separate parts strive to com-
plete themselves by a passionate outward-turned seeking.
This is the trishna (Pali, tanha) of the Buddhists, the
“constitutional appetition” with which Leibniz endowed his
monads, by which they tend to pass from state to state. If not
identical, it is yet related to what Jung terms libido and,
stripped alike of Sanskrit terms and of the jargon of phil-
osophers, it is that burning thirst which drives the soul out
from itself to range throughout the world, seeking its food,
devouring all it meets.

1 There are many interesting references to this symbolic net in ancient
mystical literature. In Shzoetashzoatara Upamshad Tshwara is termed the
Wielder of the Net and in the Egyptian Book of the Dead (chapter dnW,
Budge), under the vignette of a net occur the following interesting words:
“Hail, thou ‘god who lookest behind thee* (manas united with buddht)>
thou ‘god who hast gained the mastery over thy heart,’ I go a-fishing
with the cordage of the (net), ‘uniter of the earth’ and of him that maketh
a way through the earth. Hail, ye fishers who have given birth to your
own fathers (manas in which the Divine birth has taken place).” t

8 Readers of the Secret Doctrine will remember a statement of H.P.B. $
to the effect that the esoteric philosophy involved a reconciliation of the
apparently confhcting monadism of Leibniz with the monism of Spinoza
(Secret Doctrine^ i, 628, 1st edition).

138 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

From this tendency arises the great natural law that life must
feed on life, but metaphysically we should observe that this
most terrible of all the laws of nature, by which the tiger rushes
on his prey and man himself murders the thing he loves, is also
a manifestation of the unity of all. Under the outward-
rushing impetus of rajas the soul no longer sees the unity
within. But since, even though unseen, that unity can never
be denied, the soul goes forth in passionate desire to seize and
grasp whatever lies outside, subordinating others to its will and
even, on the lowest plane of all, devouring their material
envelopes that so itself may grow. Thus all the horrors of the
world we know arise from ignorance, which turns the soul to
seek in vain without what is already there within; desire is
based on love and strife on unity.

As soon as the plurality has been established, the sinister
power of tamas begins to make itself felt. Once the division
between self and other has been made, the veiling power of
tamas drains that “other” of all Light. It is no longer “me,”
instinct with life and movement, but something dead, inert,
passively hostile, a death-hand gripping with a cold inertia the
soul of man that struggles to be free. Thus is the outer world
of objects formed. Our Self has drawn them forth and given
to them “a local habitation and a name,” and now they turn
upon that Self, denying It reality. The brain, says someone,
“secretes thought as the liver secretes bile.” In truth it is
not the brain that “secretes thought” but thought that has
called forth the brain for, as the Buddha said, “of all pheno-
mena mind is the caller-forth; pre-eminent is mind, of mind
are all things made.” 1

It is tamas that veils the mind’s creative power so that it
quails before its own creation. Even religion,- which should
have taught the Path of Light to men, has ended, for the most
part, in succumbing to the deadly drag of tamas, taking all
power from Man to bestow it on the Gods. In most religions
it is thought a sign of grace to hold that man is essen-

1 Dhammapada , I.

YOGA OF DIVISION OF THE THREE GUNAS 139

tially a poor creature, one who can do nothing of himself, one
who must supplicate on bended knees the superhuman Gods
who wield the Cosmos.

But, as Hermes says, “if thou lockest up thy soul within thy
body and dost debase it, saying: I nothing know; I no thing
can; I fear the sea; I cannot scale the sky; I know not who I
was, who I shall be; what is there then between thy (inner)

God and thee?”

These three guttas, sattva , rajas and tamas , are, as has already
been said, the strands of which the twisted rope of being
is woven. All things, from grossest “matter” to subtlest
cosmic thought-stuff, are the manifestations of one or more
of these three tendencies, and it is one of the tasks of the
disciple to analyse all phenomena in terms of these gunas. His
effort is to be able to stand firm in sattva for, as we have seen, it
is sattva alone that can reflect the Light. He must therefore
be able to say of any phenomenon: “this is sdttvik for it brings
increase of Light and harmony and so will lead me upwards;
this is rajasik for it leads but to motion and is founded on desire;
this is tamasik for it fills the soul with darkness, taking it
captive to an outer Fate.”

This division applies to all things in the Cosmos, food (see
Chapter XVII), recreations, companionships, or books; all
may drag downwards, outwards, or lead upwards. But above
all he must watch the gunas as they manifest in his own mind,
for the mind is the gateway to the Real and the disciple must, in
Hermes’ words, be one “for ever living at the Inner Door.”

At that Door he must constitute himself a doorkeeper, letting
all sdttvik tendencies pass through, checking all rajas, over-
coming tamos . 1

Therefore the Gita gives some indications whereby the Verse
movements in the min d may be marked down. “When the
light of knowledge is bom in all the gates of the body, then it
may be known that sattva is increasing.” In other words,

1 Compare the four exercises in recollectedness ( satipatfhSva ) of the
Buddhists.

140 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

a state of mind that fosters clear, unclouded knowledge,
that brings a peace and inner harmony, stilling the lake of
mind till it reflects the stars, bringing a sense of calm eternity,
that state is sattvik, and all outward things, food, friends,
or occupations, that help forward such a state also partake
of sattva.

Verse 12. The rajasik state, on the other hand, is characterised by
passionate mobility. The mind is restless, occupied by greed,
full of desire for things outside itself. Bright dreams may fill
it, dreams of great things to be done, yet all those things are
for the sake of self though they may sometimes wear the
glittering robes of altruism and service of the world.

This rajasik restlessness is often confused with the Divine
activity. There are many who cannot sit still for a moment,
who think that to be always up and doing, no matter what,
is to be full of life, and they bow down before activity in any
form whatever. But this rajasik lust for movement is not
the same as the Divine action, for it will be found, if analysed,
that it is always tainted by some personal desire, always in
bondage to some personal gain, while the Divine activity is
free, calm and majestic in Its selflessness.

Verse 13. Tamasik states of mind are dark and stagnant, the mind is
overcome by lethargy or broods in dull depression. Nothing
seems worth doing, nothing can be done; all things oppress
the soul, which sinks in sheer inertia. The Path is nothing
but an empty dream or else a task beyond our feeble powers,
while cynicism lends its venomed dagger to cut the very root
of worldly action. “All things are shows, and vain the
knowledge of their vanity.”

This tamasik despondency is the greatest obstacle to one who
seeks to tread the Path. The soul “flags wearily through
darkness and despair.” 1 It is a state which must be fought off
at all costs, for not even the fierce, burning winds of rajasik
passion are so fatal to all progress.

1 These lines of Shelley were written of Coleridge., who* it will be
remembered, composed an “Ode to Dejection.”

YOGA OF DIVISION OF THE THREE GUNAS 141

Unfortunately, just as some people mistake the restless
urge of rajas for Divine activity, so others mistake the dull
indifferentism of tamas for spirituality. Mealy-mouthed
cowardice is called “turning the other cheek,” lazy inefficiency
is termed indifference to material circumstances, shallow
fa t a lis m is confused with wise acceptance of the karma of one’s
past, cold indifference to one’s fellows becomes a rising above
love and hate, and that dull poverty of spirit that ignores all
art and literature becomes transcendence of the lures of sense.

All is Mayal All is Shunyal All is the Play of God! What
does anything matter? This is not spirituality but tamas.

The “Dark Night of the Soul,” that phrase coined by St John
of the Cross to express certain of his experiences, has in the
West been made by many an excuse for yielding to the fits
of depression that come upon everyone from time to time.

The disciple must thus keep constant watch upon his mind
so that when tamas makes itself felt therein, if he cannot at
once rise to sattvik light, he will at least be able to overcome
it with the outward-turned activity of rajas. In general it
may be said that sattvik states will lead him upwards to higher
levels of being, for their transparent luminosity allows averse
reflection of the next higher level to show itself, suffusing the
lower with the light of higher matias, or manas with the buddhi.

Rajasik states will leave him stationary, since, though he
fill the world with his activities, he moves but outwards and
can never leave the plane whereon he stands. Tamasik states
will drag him downwards till he loses all he has and sinks into
a less tha» human, mindless state. The phrase “sinks down-
wards” should not, however, be interpreted, as is sometimes
done, to mean that the ego enters on an a n imal incarnation.
That is impossible, though it may sometimes happen that a
process takes place which is best described as the ego’s having
to watch over one or more animal lives with which it will fed
itself bound up. In general, however, the meaning of the
phrase is that he sinks gradually into the lowest grades of
human existence.

142 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

It is interesting to note the extreme manifestations of rajas
and tamas that are to be seen in our asylums. The rajasik
is seen in what is termed manic excitement

“The patient is in a state of constant activity, commencing
a new occupation at every moment and immediately aban-
doning it in favour of another. He is never still but exhibits
a continual press of activity. He talks rapidly and without
intermission ... his attention is caught by every trivial
object, and as soon diverted again. He is generally abnormally
cheerful and absurdly pleased with himself . . . though his
mood changes to anger at the smallest provocation.” 1

From the same source I take a description of a tamasik
manifestation, the so-called emotional dementia :

“The patient sits in a corner with expressionless face and
head hanging down, making no attempt to occupy himself in
any way, evincing no interest in anything that goes on around
him, and apparently noticing nothing. . . . The patient is
completely inert and makes no use of his mental faculties (not
because he has none, but) because he has no interests or desires.
The whole external world for him ... is an object unworthy
of the expenditure of any mental energy. He is without
interests, hopes, plans or ambition.”

In these descriptions who cannot recognise processes that
go on in less extreme forms in his own mind?

Another characteristic of the gunas is the constant interplay
of action and reaction that goes on between them. The
Verse 10. world, “the moving thing” in Sanskrit, is never still. Sattva
gives place to rajasik activity, which, carried to extreme,
provokes a tamasik rebound. 3 Everyone knows how states
of elation pass without apparent cause into a dull depression.
This instance, alone, will show how important it is for the
disciple to gain an understanding of the operation of the
guruts, passing and repassing as they weave the web of life.

1 Psychology of Insanity, by Bernard Hart.

8 The pttreme illustration of this is to be found in the alternations which
characterise the so-called manic-depressive type, perhaps with lucid intervals
which are (relatively) sattvik.

YOGA OF DIVISION OF THE THREE GUNAS 143

Because of its power to reflect the steady poise of the eternal Verse 6.
Light, sattva alone is relatively stable. Yet even sattva has
its binding power. Stainless and sorrowless, its light is still
reflected light and binds the soul to the happiness and know-
ledge that are its manifestations. At any time the love of
happiness, the sacred thirst for knowledge, may, through the
touch of rajas , degenerate into lust for pleasure and mere
curiosity.

Therefore the disciple must bend his energies upon trans-
cendence of the gunas altogether. He must strive to see that Verses
all their play is objective to himself: he is the seeing Light. 195 20 *
Refuged within that Light, the Heavenly Ganga wherein
who bathes is rendered pure and sinless, “he drinks the
nectar of eternal Life.” The movements of the Cosmos,
shining with knowledge, passionately active, darkly inert, he
sees with steady vision. His is the calm immortal gaze of
Spirit, cool as the moonlight on a tropic lake. Nothing that Verse 22.
comes can be unwelcome to him; nothing that goes can be
a source of grief. He knows that all is needed for a Cosmos,
that in the darkest tamas shines the Light. And so he stands,
rock-like, in inner meditation, whether in cities or on lonely
mountain peaks, watching the gunas weave their web, alike to Verses
friend and foe. Sorrow and joy, honour and evil fame, are 23-25 ‘
one to him and, though he acts quite freely, the fatal thought
“I am the doer of these actions” can find no entry in his
Light-filled heart.

Rent is the threefold Web of Fate. The gunas have been
crossed and the one-time disciple stands on the edge of the
Eternal Brahman. His light can merge in the transcendent
Flame and blaze in bliss beyond the world of men; the
Stream is crossed, the great Reward is his. But Krishna tells
us of another Path that opens as a possibility before him. He
may elect not to withdraw his Light to the Unmanifest Eternal Verse 26.
but to stay and serve the one Eternal Life that is in all. His
freedom won, he may devote himself to freeing others, silently
guiding pilgrims on the Path. His is no shrinking from the

144 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

final plunge, for Krishna says that he is “worthy of becoming
the Eternal,” implying that he stays by his own choice to
serve the One Great Life that is the manifested basis 1 of the
Parabrdhman. Nor is he man at all, but a great Power which,
by Its presence, though unknown, unseen, lightens the bitter
sorrows of the world.

1 Prattshfhd. Compare the phrase “the Nest of Brahman 99 in Maitri
Upanishad, vi 3 15, which is there identified with the samvatsara — i.e, the
great Cycle of Time* the Mahat Atman, whose discus Krishna carries.

CHAPTER XV

THE YOGA OF THE HIGHEST SPIRIT

Just as the subject of the last chapter was the analysis of the
Field., so that of the present one is the analysis of the Knower,
the Consciousness, especially in its threefold aspect as indi-
vidual Self, Cosmic Self and Supreme Reality.

The chapter commences, however, with an account of the
World-Tree. This great symbol, mentioned in the Rig-Veda
and Upamshads , 1 was known to all the ancient peoples. The
Scandinavians knew of it as the sacred ash-tree, Igdrasil , with
its roots in the death-kingdoms and its branches in the sky.
In his poem to Hertha, the Norse nature-goddess, Swinburne
writes of —

“The tree many-rooted
That swells to the sky
With frondage red-fruited.

The life-tree am I;

In the buds of your lives is the sap of my leaves: ye shall live and
not die.”

The Egyptians worshipped the sacred sycamore fig-tree, the
Aztecs of America had the sacred agave-plant and the ancient
Sumerians of Eridu tell of a wondrous tree with “Its roots of
white crystal stretched towards the deep, its seat the central
place of the earth, its foliage the couch of the primaeval Mother.
In its midst was Tammuz .” 2

Space forbids any attempt to go into the extremely interest-
ing symbolism connected with this subject. Here it can only
be stated briefly that the Tree was a symbol of the great
World-Mother, the Goddess of Nature who nourishes all life
with the milk of Her breasts. Hence the choice by the

1 Rig-Veda^ I, xxiv, 7, and Kathopanishad vi, 1.

2 D’Alviella., The Migration of Symbols, p. 157.

145 r ?

146 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Egyptians of the sycamore fig with its milky juice, and hence
the fact that the three most sacred trees of the ancient Indo-
Aryans were the ashwattha, the hat (banyan) and the udumhara ,
all of them being species of the fig-tree.

The name ashwattha is usually derived from a-shwa-stha,
“not standing till to-morrow,” but while this is an appropriate
enough description of the world which is ever passing away
before our eyes, there is an earlier account which tells
how Agni, the desire-consciousness, hid in this tree for a year
(the cycle of manifestation) in the form of a horse ( ashwa ), the
well-known symbol of the desire-mind. 1 This myth is of
great significance as it links up with the statement already
quoted that Tammuz was in the midst of the Sumerian World-
Tree and also, perhaps, with the growth of an erica-tree round
the coffin of the dead Osiris, 2 for both these “dying Gods”
were, from the inner point of view, symbols of the Atman,
dismembered and imprisoned in the world.

The authors of the ancient Indian tradition introduced,
however, one modification into the symbol which is not, so
Verse x. far as I know, found elsewhere. The other World-Trees all
have their roots in the underworld and branches in the sky,
but the Tree of the Gita, following that of the Veda “whose
root is high above,” is rooted in the unmanifested Brahman
and sends down its branches, the various levels of objectivity,
the evolutes of the Mula-prakriti , 3 to form the worlds of
manifested being. The Tree as a whole is termed the Veda

1 Taittinya Brahmana 3 III, viii, 12, v. 2. See Tilak’s Gita Rahasya
on this verse. The myth also occurs in Mahdbhdrata > Anusgasana Parva,
s. 85. It may also be noted that one of the meanings of Ashwa is “seven 59
(see Apte’s Dictionary ), that a vignette in the Egyptian Book of the Dead
represents the sacred sycamore fig-tree with seven branches, that the same
is true of some representations of the Assyrian Tree of Life, and, finally,
that the trunk of the famous many-breasted statue of Artemis of Ephesus
is divided into seven levels, five of which are filled with representations
of living creatures. See Mackenzie, The Migration of Symbols , pp. 162-169,
for drawings of these.

2 See Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris . The ramifications of this subject would
take us all over the world.

3 See Gita, vii, 4. There is also a microcosmic correspondence with
the cerebral nervous system, rooted in the brain, the seat of consciousness,
and ramifying downwards to the sense organs all over the body.

THE YOGA OF THE HIGHEST SPIRIT 147

as it is the content of all knowledge and the leaves, the indi-
vidual selves, are the separate verses ( chhandansi ) of that
cosmic Veda. “He who knoweth it is a F^ia-knower.”

Nourished by the three gunas of which all phenomena are Verse 2.
made (compare the three roots of Igdrasil), the branches spread
both upwards and downwards, referring to the Cosmic Tides
which flow upwards in the upper worlds and downwards in
the lower. 1 The sprouts, peculiarly sticky in this tree, are
the ensnaring objects of the senses and the roots, the karmik
tendencies from the past universe,’ grow downwards to
generate “the bonds of karma in the world of men.”

While man is in the world, his consciousness absorbed in
the forms which he perceives, it is impossible for him to see
the Tree as a whole. Still less can he see that fundamental Verse 3.
Light which has drawn forth the forms, holds them in being
and, in the end, will dissolve them once more in the Matrix.

“Now then the inquiry into Brahman ,” says the author of
the Brahma Sutras, and then he goes on to define Brahman
as “That from which the origin, by which the preservation,
and in which the end” of the whole world of forms is found.

The answer is there, lying close at hand, but the inquiry will
lead to nowhere but a maze of intellectual subtleties unless
certain preliminary qualifications are present in the inquirer.

These qualifications are usually given as four: viveka, dis-
crimination between the constant and the transitory; vairagya,
a t uming -away from what is transitory; shat-sampatti, a group
of six attainments comprising control of mind, control of
sense, endurance, a tuming-away from the outer (whether
in experience or in religion), faith (in the Gita’s sense) and
mental balance; mumukshutva, desire for liberation from the
bondage of ignorance.

1 See Chapter XI. , _ . . ,

* Or, microcosmicaliy, from past lives. It is a peculiarity of the ashwama
that its roots 5 instead of merging into the trunk at groimd-level 3 often
mainrnm a semi-independent existence for several feet above ground wl
they finally merge into one. Many explanations of this verse are vitiated
by confusing the ashwattha with the banyan* which sends down aerial
roots, whereas the former does not.

i 4 8 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

The Gita, however, mentions only one supreme qualifica-
tion, which, if truly attained, includes all the rest, the quali-
fication of non-attachment. This is the ase that will cut
down the firmly rooted Tree, but non-attachment means a
great deal more than mere ascetic refusal of commerce with
the world. The latter may strengthen personal will-power
but, as the Buddha found, will take the ascetic no nearer to
the Goal. In fact, by strengthening his personal will, it may
even rivet him more tightly to his bonds. Non-attachment
can Jiever be attained while standing in one’s personality , nor
even while standing in the individual ego, the separate Jiva.
The disciple must see his personality as something separate
from himself, like the personalities he sees in dream, and must
take refuge in the impersonal Light. Then alone will non-attach-
ment flower in his heart because the Light is ever unattached.

“Destroy all sense of self,” said Buddha; “come unto
Me,” said Christ; “still all the movements of the mind,”
said Patanjali, that mind which, by attachment to all outward
things, produces the false self. These and all other Teachers
of the Way were, in their different language, saying but one
thing : that man must come from self into the Self, from death
to Life, from darkness into Light. Established in that Light,
cohesive power will leave the Cosmic Tree and it will fall to
pieces like those fabled ships which, on approaching the
magnetic mountain, lost all their nails and sank into the sea.
“Not by any travelling is the world’s end reached. Verily
I declare to you that within this fathom-long body with its
perceptions and its mind lies the world, its arising and its
ceasing and the Way that leads to its cessation.” 1

Verse 4. Detaching himself from the union with the objects of both
outer and timer senses, detaching himself in fact from all form
whatsoever, the disciple must soar upon the trackless Path of
Light towards the Primal Consciousness from which in ages
past the Cosmic Energies streamed forth.

Verse 6 . That Consciousness, however, being Absolute, is far beyond
1 Buddha, Samyutta Nikaya s ii 3 3, 6.

THE YOGA OF THE HIGHEST SPIRIT 149

all that we know as such. Rnower and Known exist as one
in It as, in another way, they are at one in absolute matter,
if any such exist save as abstraction. It is in fact no con-
sciousness for us, being beyond the Fire of manifested life,
the Moon of Mula-prakriti , the Sun of the unmanifested
Atman. It is the Void; It also is the Full. Having gone
thither, none return again. That, Krishna says, is His
supreme Abode 2 ; That is the Goal; That is the final bliss.

/®ut now the Gita turns to lower levels and deals with the Verse 7.
mystery of the incarnation of that One. A constant moment
of that partless Whole, the point of view explained in previous
chapters, stands in the “matter” of the mental world uniting
with its forms. As it turns outwards under the urge of rajas
it becomes the lower, the desire-infected mind, and the
integral power of knowing that is inherent in its light, in the
attempt to grasp the various aspects of the world around,
manifests as the five organs of sense-knowledge. These are
at first the inner senses but they exteriorise into the so-called
physical organs under the pull of tamas, as explained in
the previous chapter. Moreover, from our point of view, the
physical body belongs, not to the subjective, but to the
objective side of experience. It is in fact only a specialised
portion of what is actually environment, as it is merely a part
of the content of consciousness upon the lowest level.

It should always be remembered that the sense-powers
are differentiations of the integral illuminating power of
Consciousness and are by no means something belonging to
the material manifestation. This explains the fact noted by
biologists that the senses are formed by differentiation from
one primitive sense and the fact that under certain conditions
one sense-organ can be made to do the work of others. The
seme of touch can even be made to manifest at a distance of
several inches from the surface of the skin. 2

1 Note that the word Dhdma means Light as well as abode.

2 See UExteriorisation de la Moiricite , by de Rochas; also Eyeless Sight,
by Jules Romairn. The interchanging of the sense-functions is also a
practice of certain types of yogi in India.

Verse 8.

150 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

When the Ego, the inner Lord, takes a body it manifests
these senses as powers of gaining experience of the outer world.
Here we must be careful not to confuse the scientific with
the metaphysical account. Scientifically, or from the point
of view of form, the process of incarnation may be described
as the actual entry into a suitably organised vehicle (the embryo)
of a subtler but still “material” body, the body of desire. 1
Metaphysically, the process is to be viewed as a hardening-
out of the for ms with which the consciousness identifies itself,
t h^ir so-to-speak de-illumination under the veiling power of
tamas, so that the fluid form of the desire-mind crystallises
into the relatively rigid material body.

Once it has come into being, the physical body is a battle-
ground for the opposing forces of rajas and tamas. There are
two sets of processes, known to biologists as anabolism and
katabolism respectively, which go on simultaneously in the
body from its first formation till its ultimate decay. One set,
under the urge of the rajas of the desire-nature, are always
building up the organism and repairing any damage, while
the other, under the tamasik pull of “matter,” are as busily
engaged in breaking down whatever is built up. During
the first half of life the former are in the ascendant, but
gradually the destroyers assert themselves more and more,
until the body refuses to obey the promptings of the ego and
desire-nature and forces them to withdraw and leave it to
disintegrate in peace.

The sense-powers, however, as we have seen, are no

property of the material body but belong to the Ego itself,

and therefore the latter is said to seize them and return with

Verse 8. them to its own plane “as the wind takes fragrances from

their retreats.” As it withdraws it of course leaves behind

it, not only the doomed physical body, but also the desire-

nature, which is, as we have seen, intermediate between the

Ego and the body. The essence , therefore, of our sense-

1 The “stuff 55 of this subtle body may perhaps be identified with what
in spiritist circles is termed ectoplasm. But all references to matter or
stuff should be taken in the light of what is written in Appendix B.

THE YOGA OF THE HIGHEST SPIRIT 151

experience is taken up by the ascending consciousness to be
assimilated in that purely mental form which is built up
around the central point throughout the age-long alternations
of physical life and death.

There, as the Gita says elsewhere, the Ego on its purely
mental plane “enjoys the spacious heavenly realm,” reaping,
as the Egyptians put it, the heavenly corn in the Fields of
Aahlu until, when all the fruits have been reaped, a process
that may last centuries or even thousands of years, the down-
ward pull of mingled rajas and tamas asserts itself once more
and the Ego seeks a further incarnation.

The deluded do not perceive the Self as it departs nor even
as it stands within the body. “How shall that Seer be seen?” Verse 10.
asks the Upanishad, and those whose vision is engrossed in
outer forms, with all their scalpels and their microscopes see
naught but forms. Even the would-be yogi, absorbed in
outward practices with breath, or even struggling to subdue
his min d, unless he makes the inward turn towards the Atman , Verse ix.
detaching himself from forms, will gain no more than wretched
psychic powers. Only the wisdom-eyed, those few who,
seeking immortality, turn their gaze inwards, behold the
individual Self, seated within the heart . 1

Nevertheless, that individual Self is but a moment of the
Cosmic Self. The Light which shines within the ego (as
opposed to the latter’s built-up form) is the same Light that Verse 12.
shines within the other Selves as well, and he who sees It
rightly sees the unity of all, founded on that great Unity of
Brahman, beyond Sun, Moon and Fire. a

That Parabrahman in the form of Its Light-Energy (ojas),
enterin g the “earth” of Its objective aspect (Mula-prakriti),
supports all beings and then again, having become the desire- Verse 13.
natured imm ortal one ( rasatmaka soma). It nourishes the
“plants” of personal life ( aushadhi ). s Lower still. It becomes

1 Kapha Upanishad , iv, i.

8 See above for explanation of these terms. .

8 The aushadhi are plants like corn, etc., which wither after bringing
forth their fruits and spring up again from seedjtheifollowing year. Opposed

152 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Vaishvanara, the Fire of the desire-life which bums throughout
the world. Organised round, though not itself the Ego, its
Verse 14. fierce, impersonal but living flames, in union with a living,
breathing body, grasp and digest the food of the four elements
of matter. 1

In all these manifestations on the various levels it is the one
Divine Krishna that is to be sought, He who is “seated in the
hearts of all.” It is His presence there that sustains the
entire flow of life, microcosmic as well as macrocosmic.
Verse 15. Because of His presence the images of all past experience
cohere together as memory, a memory which, in the case of
the yogi poised there at His feet, extends throughout the whole
series of his past lives. Without His vision, embracing as it
does past, present and future, the past could not persist before
our mental eye.

From Him, too, comes the power of perception (jnana ) , the
link between subject and object, so vainly sought by academic
philosophy, by which we are able to perceive what is “really
there” and are not limited, as some have thought, to “ideas”
in our own minds. True perception is possible only through
His presence in the heart as it is He who holds subject and
object in one unity.

From Him, also, comes absence or loss of memory and
knowledge ( apohanam ), since it is only by a limitation of the
all-pervading knowledge, by a shutting out of the images of the
“future” which form the other half of “memory” and which
are equally present to His gaze, that the movement of life is
made to flow in a given direction. That of which we are
ignorant, that which we fail to remember, determines equally
with what we know and remember the direction of the life-
flow at any given period, whether of individual or of social life.

He, also, it is who is that all-transcending and yet all-
pervading One Being whose rich unity is set forth in the many-
faceted harmony of the Vedik symbols, and, in a more directly

to them are the banaspati which, like trees, remain from year to year. The
former symbolise the transient personal selves; the latter the relatively
permanent egos or jivas.

THE YOGA OF THE HIGHEST SPIRIT 153

“philosophical” manner, in the Vedanta (Upanishads). Ware
He not present in the heart. The Veddntik Knowledge could
never arise. He it is who is the secret Fount from which well
up its life-giving waters.

The next verses are concerned with the very important Verse 16.
teaching about the three modes in which Spirit or Con-
sciousness (purusha) manifests. Sri Krishna first sets forth
the two well-known modes which He here terms the flowing Verse 16.
or mutable and the immutable or flowless. The Flowing is
that consciousness which, as it were, flows along the stream
of time from a given focus. In other words it is the conscious-
ness that ma n ifests as the countless beings, as individuals,
extending indefinitely in the mode of temporal succession.

It is the basis of all finite selves, flowing, stream-like, through
the universe.

Beyond it, however, is a vast and Flowless oceanic Con-
sciousness that, with an equal, and, as it were, neutral vision,
embraces the entire realm of manifested being. It is the
Kuiastha , seated on the summit of the World-mountain, and,
to Its calm, impassive gaze, all things are equal, all yesterdays
are one with all to-morrows, action and flowing movement
can exist no more. This is the unmoved Witness of the
Cosmos, the stainless Light that naught can ever move.

Many have viewedlt as the Goal of all and sought a refuge in
Its changeless peace beyond a world of constant change and
sorrow.

These two modes of Consciousness are the two birds of
the Upanishad, fast friends, perched on one tree. One, the
changing individual self, eats the sweet fruits of dynamic
experience and is bound thereby; the other, the changeless
Witness, watches but partakes of naught. 1

But beyond these two is yet a third, the Consciousness that
is the Supreme Self, highest and most excellent of all.

Nor is this Purushottama , this Highest Purusha , a merely Verse 17.

1 Mundaka Upanishad, iii-i, also Ilig-Veda , l, cbriv, 20. Similarlyaonthe
highest branch of Igdrasil was perched an eagle while other creatures occupied
the lower branches.

154 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

transcendent Being, throned in isolated grandeur beyond the
limits of all universes. The second or Immutable Purusha could
scarcely “enter” the play of manifestation without beginning
to “flow” and so losing Its own nature. But that Supreme
Consciousness is within as well as beyond the Cosmos, for Sri
Krishna says that it is as that Purushottama that, having without
any loss of poise entered into the heart of manifestation. He
sustains and rules the entire triple world.

It is this Consciousness, indeed, which is Sri Krishna’s
Verse 18. Essential Being to which He has so often referred. Beyond
the finite but yet dynamic changing Selves, beyond also and
more excellent than the changeless stasis of the Cosmic
Witness, beyond the opposites of personality and imperson-
ality, form and formlessness. He is the highest and most
excellent of all. His is the Consciousness which stands, sustain-
ing all; His too the Consciousness which, from its minute
heart, moves every tiny atom. Movement and rest are both as
one to Him, freedom and necessity are but as His two hands.
The changeless Sun and ever-changing Moon are His two
eyes; He sees with both at once. Fearing no limitations. He
enters in the heart of every form; fearing no bondage. He is the
secret Power who moves each moving thing.

It was doubtless because of its knowledge of this ultimate
Divine poise that the Bhagawata or Pancharatra teaching (to
which we have already referred in chapter four footnote to
verse i) was known as Trisauparna, the teaching of the Three
Birds, to mark it off from the teaching of those schools who
knew only the Two Birds referred to above. It is by this
marvellous poise of the Purushottama that the two aspects of
being, the changing and the changeless, the world and Nirvana,
are held together in one firm embrace and that the former is
redeemed from being, what to some teachings it seemed
inevitably to be, a ghastly mistake which should not have
occurred and which, to some all-defiant mystic logic, never has
occurred.

It is, moreover, this same supreme poise of the Ultimate

THE YOGA OF THE HIGHEST SPIRIT 155

Spirit that is manifest in and as the “personal” Krishnaj
enabling Him to speak with such transcendent authority, to
act with such all-dominating power and freedom, to stand
serene beyond all loves and hates and, at the same time , to be
the passionate Lover of those who gave themselves to Him in
love. In all things He mingled, in love, in war, in politics;
and yet in all was He utterly unperturbed. First of all lovers,
teachers, warriors, statesmen, He was yet the friend of simple
cowherd boys, the lover of the cowherd girls of Braja. To
all He was the same, and yet forever on the side of those who
loved Him. Kauravas and Pandavas were one to Him, but,
though He. strove with all His eloquence for peace, yet, even
befcffe He started forth upon the embassy. His word was
pledged to Draupadi for war.

That is why He goes on to say in the concluding verses of
the chapter that he who, undeluded by the clashing opposites, Vei
including those final opposites of the world and Nirvana, 193
knows Him thus as Purushottama, he and he only is a knower
of the All, he and he alone one who is able to serve Him with
his whole being. Others can serve Him but with what is best
in them; he alone serves with fully integrated being. This
is the most secret teaching of all and to it Sri Krishna will
return at the conclusion of the entire dialogue. He who has
understood its profound mystery has accomplished all.

CHAPTER XVI

THE YOGA OF THE DIVISION BETWEEN THE BRIGHT AND
DARK POWERS

Literally translated, the title of this chapter would read “the
division between the divine and demoniacal endowments,”
but such a rendering suggests, to Western readers at least, a
Miltonic dualism which is far from what is meant by the Gita.
The word deva and its adjective, daivi, come from a root
meaning “shining,” while asura, though originally a title of
Indra and other Vedic Gods, came to have the sense of “not-
divine,” hence “dark.”

Verse 6 . There are two natures in this world, the Bright and the
Dark, and the purport of this chapter is to trace the differences
between them. But the differentiation in question is not an
arbitrary division into good and bad based on the will of some
personal God or Teacher, but one which is rooted in the very
nature of the Cosmic manifestation.

Mention has already been made of the two great tides or
movements of the Cosmos, technically known as pravritti and
nivptti. The former is the great outgoing breath by which
the universe comes forth from Brahman ; the latter is the
inflowing counterpart by which all things return towards
the One.

We must be on our guard against any introduction of
ordinary ethical ideas in giving the names Bright and Dark
to these two movements. The former is dark because it
is characterised by an ever-increasing absorption of the Light
within the forms, while the latter is bright because its tendency
is towards the liberation of the Light. Such mental states as
aid or manifest the outgoing movement are also called dark,
and those that express the movement of return are termed
bright.

156

BRIGHT AND DARK POWERS 157

This is the real basis of the ethical dualism that we find in
the world. It is a great mistake, however, to set up an ethical
dualism as absolute and then to rack one’s brains to account for
“the origin of evil.” The dualism of the Cosmic Tides is
inevitable in any universe whatever. It is no more possible
to have a universe based on one movement alone than to have
a gun that will fire without a recoil. Action and reaction are
the conditions of all manifestation and not even the great
Machine of the Cosmos can escape the operation of this law.

Most so-called ethical science is an attempt to find some
sort of reputable intellectual sanction for the prejudices and
customs of the society in which the particular thinker has been
born. Certain actions are labelled good, others — for instance
the appropriation of “someone else’s” property, or certain
forms of sexual behaviour — are termed evil. But this labelling
not only raises the problem of why there should be evil in the
universe but also leads to the discovery that other societies
in the world have no cognisance of these particular labels, or
even apply them in the opposite sense. Since, moreover, the
universe as a*whole, apart from supematuralist assumptions,
shows no sign of acting in accordance with the labels, the
conclusion is reached that the universe is non-ethical and a
further dualism between man and nature is set up, so that the
former finds himself in the unenviable position of being
concerned with good and evil in a universe that is profoundly
indifferent. t

Such a conclusion is extremely unsatisfactory, since it leaves
man either a worshipper of the image that his own hands have
xaadt, one that he knows has no reality behind it, or else drives
him into the arms of his own unregulated desires.

Our ethics must in fact be based upon the twofold Cosmic
Movement and therefore must be relative. Buddhist philosophy
speaks of two types of kalpa (period of manifestation), tern|. ^
respectively vivaria kalpas, or periods of “unrolling,”
sammrta kalpas, or periods of “rolling up,” and when,^^.
eve of Enlight enm ent, the Buddha saw the whole serf&V*

158 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

past lives. He remembered having lived through several of
these alternate periods of evolution and involution. The
universe is not then to be regarded as a perfectly straight
unrolling followed by an equally straight rolling-up but as a
cyclic process, spiralling downwards through many alternating
ages and then reascending in the same spiral fashion.

From this it follows that, if ethics are to have any foundation
in the Cosmos, we must define good and evil in terms of the
processes that aid or hinder the cosmic tendencies that are
dominant at the time, and these will be different according to
whether the age we are living in is one of unrolling or one of
rolling-up. The qualities that are of assistance during an
outgoing period of further descent into matter and which
therefore must at that time be termed “good” are precisely
the opposite of those which will be of use during a period of
ascent or involution. Thus the virtues of the one period will
become the vices of the other.

This ambiguity or relativity can be avoided by the use of
the ethically neutral terms Bright and Dark, for they express
simply the characteristics of the period in question without
passing ethical judgment upon them.

Traces of this alternation of values have been preserved in
Hindu mythology. We read in the Puranas how, at certain
early periods of the world, certain egos were entrusted with
the work of generation of the species and ordered to produce
offspring. They, however, refused to do so and became
chas te ascetics, a course considered meritorious at other
epochs but here evidently considered a “sin,” since we read
that they were cursed in consequence of their refusal.

The reversal of me anin g that came over the word asura
is perhaps a further indication of the same sort. Originally,
tas has been said, the word was a title applied to the great
Varum , Indra and Agni — a sense which has been
aicftrved in the Ahura Mazda of the Iranian tradition — but
andWjimes it came to signify the “dark” enemies of the
brightT'^e same may be said of the process by which Lucifer,

BRIGHT AND DARK POWERS

159

“Son of the Morning,” whose very name of Light-bearer
shows him to have represented the downward movement of
the Light, became in later times the Christian Devil, the enemy
of God and righteous men.

When we leave theory and come to practice we find our-
selves at once confronted by the question how we are to know
whether the period in which we are living is one of evolution
or of involution. The answer is primarily to be found in our
hearts, which, reflecting as they do the whole of Cosmos, are
able to know which tendency is operating at a given time.
But that still small voice within us is reinforced by the words
of the great spiritual Teachers of the epoch who, being Seers,
teach in accordance with the voice of Cosmic Law.

Now it is noticeable that all the great Teachers of the
historic epoch have inculcated an ethic of a definitely ascending
or nivritti type. The ascending character of the ethics of
the Gita, of Buddha, Christ and Shankara, is so obvious that
we are apt to identify such teachings with ethics pure and
simple and to assume that teachings of the opposite sort are
evil for all time.

But there are definite indications that such a conclusion
is erroneous. If we look back to the earliest cultures of which
we have any historical knowledge, the civilisations of the five
or six millennia preceding what we call our era, we see that the
religions of those civilisations were of a fundamentally different
type. I have written religions but perhaps the singular would
have been more appropriate, for, just as there is a certain
uniformity about all modern religion, so there was a similarity
between all the ancient religions . 1 Comparison of Baby-
lonian, ancient Egyptian, or Cretan religion with the religions
founded by “historical” Teachers shows that a fundamental
difference of attitude prevailed in the ancient cults.*

1 I am not referring to the thin stream of “mystery” tradition reseiy^’*
for the few who, at all times, have been treading the upward Path, bu
the great exoteric cults designed for the masses of men. t

* It would be easy to controvert this by the selection of ap ffirC-t;.,
instances, but a sensitive study of the popular ancient religit)«9T 0 %
think* reveal profound qualitative differences of values and ot ,

i6o THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

There is in all of them an emphasis on pravritti, especially
as manifested in the great forces of sex, and an inculcation of
practices that seem to us of very dubious morality. The
Great Mother was then the chief object of worship. To the
type of religion represented by the Gita she has become the
great World-Tree that is to be cut down with the axe of
non-attachment. It is easy to gloss over such a difference
with talk of the evolution of man’s religious sense, but such a
phrase only masks a real change in the values appropriate in
the two epochs.

Orphic and kindred movements in Greece, “Hermeticism”
in Egypt, Buddhism in India and Christianity in the Near East
and Europe were not simply religion par excellence coming
into an irreligious world, but movements which came to
initiate a new age, and, by reversing many previous values,
directed the hearts of men along the path of nivritti , which is
the tendency at present ruling, not, indeed, in the sense that
it yet dominates humanity but in the sense that the values for
the present epoch are the spiritualising ones of the ascent.

But it is time to return more directly to the Gita. The
teaching about the bright and dark tendencies which, like the
anabolic and katabolic processes in the body, go on simul-
taneously in all ages, has been deferred till the disciple was at
such an advanced stage of the Path because the effect of such
teaching upon immature souls is always to make them identify
their own party with the bright and their opponents with the
dark forces. They are themselves the “chosen people of
God,” while their opponents are the people of the Devil!
Each of the nations fighting in the last war was, in its own
oX'nion, fighting for Justice and the Right.

^‘atmosphere.” Notice how D. H. Lawrence, for example, in revolt
gainst accepted spiritual values, was attracted to old-world cults such as
is Etruscans, and notice also his worship of “dark Gods.” Writing
Saturnalia and kindred festivals. Sir James Frazer says in his Golden
“All these things appear to hang together; all of them may, perhaps,
and tK rcie . c * as t ^ ie scattered r emn a nt s of a uniform zone of religion and
. *vhich at a remote era belted the Old World from the Mediterranean
bright adfic.”

BRIGHT AND DARK POWERS 161

In studying the Ests of bright and dark quaHties enumerated
in the Gita we should be careful to disinfect them somewhat
of the atmosphere of “holiness” and “sinfulness” that
centuries of popular ethical thinking has surrounded them with.
Dana, for instance, must be divested of its associations with
almsgiving, charitable institutions and sanctimonious merit-
mongering, while “study of the scriptures” ( swadhyaya ) has
Ettle connection with the Bible classes of the West or with
the futile mechanical intoning of the Gita that is so popular
in orthodox circles in India. Dana is the process whereby the
good things of the universe are made to circulate and penetrate
the whole instead of being locked up in stagnant individual
centres, and is thus obviously a means of breaking down the
barriers of egoism, while swadhyaya signifies the pursuit of
knowledge by study, not necessarily the study of “holy”
books.

It is not necessary to go in detail into all the other qualities
enumerated; all that is needed is to sound a warning against
taking them in their conventional senses, for, in those senses,
they often become vices, accorded Hp-service by the great
majority of men but instinctively rebelled against in the heart.
It is not without significance that the conventional virtues of
the conventional saint are objects of dislike to healthy-minded
men. The task of thinking out the real meanings of these
quaEties and of divesting them of the accumulated holiness
of centuries is a useful and important exercise for the disciple
of this Path. Only he who has made the attempt knows what
valuable results it yields and what a profound ethical enEghten-
ment comes from the discarding of the copy-book conceptions.
Above all, the disciple will be cured of the almost universal
habit of judging by appearances, for he wiE learn that appar-
ently identical actions performed by two different men hav<
very different values from the inner point of view. /£

It will be noticed that all the quaEties which are descfr^ 1 ®?
as bright are ones which help the Eberation of the Ligfif^
themselves, of course, they are quaEties, not of the ES

1 62 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

itself, but of the psycho-physical vehicles in which it is
entangled, but, just as it is easier to extract water from a
sponge than from a brick, they are such as make it easier for
the Light to detach itself and dominate those vehicles.

Verse 2. Thus, ahinsa (harmlessness) involves a checking of the
outgoing forces of rajas, which, as we saw in connection with
chapter fourteen, are what lead to the transformation of
the unity-based love into a Nature “red in tooth and claw,”
and worse, into man red with sword and bayonet. Similarly,
Verse 3. teja (vigour) is the means of overcoming the tamasik drag
which sinks the Light in the stagnant inertia of matter.

In dealing with the dark qualities one difficulty appears at
first sight. Contrary to what we should expect from the
foregoing conclusions, a certain moral odium appears in the
phrases which are used to describe them. “Dark” men are
Verse 7. not even allowed to have a proper knowledge of pravritti ,
which one might have thought was their special province.
Verse 9. They are “ruined selves” ( nashtatmanah ), that is to say, those
whose Light is sunk in matter, and they “come forth for the
harming of the world.”

But this condemnation is explicable when we reflect that
the Gita is written for an epoch of nivritti 1 and that therefore
the dark qualities described are not the outgoing (pravritti)
tendencies in their own proper forms but, as it were, the
aftermath of those qualities, the distorted and ugly forms in
which they manifest themselves when prolonged beyond their
proper time into an epoch of nivritti. They have the same
relation to the qualities of pure pravritti that the sexuality of
an old ma n has to the normal passion of youth.

The pravritti of a nivritti age is not the healthy and vigorous
^ outgoing that it is in periods when it has the backing of the
i^fosmic Law but a sporadic, disruptive and harmful manifesta-
is^>n comparable to that unwanted cell-activity which produces
aid er.^growth of tumours in an organism. That is why it is
and tot";

1 * *ms is implied by Sri Krishna’s assurance to Arjuna, the individual
Dngxxt that he is bora with the bright endowment (verse 5),

BRIGHT AND DARK POWERS 163

said that “dark” men (in an age of nivritti) “know neither
right pravritti nor right nivritti .”

It is in that sense too that we must understand verse eight.

“The universe, they say, is without truth, without basis,
without any Ruling Power, brought about by mutual union, 1
caused by lust and nothing else.” Conscious as they are
that their own activities are without any underlying harmony
or truth, and that they are motivated by sheer desire and have
no sanction in the Cosmic Law, they naturally erect philo-
sophies which deny the presence of those attributes in the
Cosmos as a whole. We can see nothing in the universe
which we have not first perceived in our own hearts, and if
a man’s heart is given over to “insatiable desires” he will be
able to see nothing in the Cosmos but the wild strife of
untamed forces. Thus his lack of vision will seem to justify
his self-indulgence and he will abandon himself to the Verse 11.
gratification of his desires, “feeling sure that this is all.” *

One particular consequence of this yielding to desires must
be noted. We have seen that the forces of desire are not
really personal forces seated in the Ego but great impersonal
tides that sweep a man away. Just as a man experiences a Verses
rather fatuous sense of gratification and power when travelling I3 ’ I4 ‘
at high speed in a motor-car, even though that power and
speed are no attributes of his, for he may be the merest
weakling, so we experience an exhilaration in yielding ourselves
to powerful currents of desire quite oblivious of the fact that
they are neither us nor ours, but swirling tides that bear us
to destruction.

A man need only examine himself when carried away by
violent anger, passion, or grief to realise how much he is
enjoying the swift rush and how reluctant he is to allow its

1 In using the words “mutual union” the author was probably thir S ,
of sexual union, but the words would apply equally to the theory t
world arose, in the last resort, from a “fortuitous concourse of atoms,. * r--f

8 It is not proposed to point a moral by applying these yersest* -tSW
societies, East or West. Readers must judge for themselves
not they constitute an indictment of their particular society an^oS. *•
the ways of their civilisation are “bright” or “dark.”

164 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

luxurious ecstasy to come to an end. Although most (though
apparently not all!) modern societies will not allow us to
exult in the naif fashion of verse fourteen over the enemies
we have slain and are about to slay yet we can all recognise
the desire-born thrill of the next verse: “I am wealthy, well-
Verse 15. bom; who is there that is like unto me? I will sacrifice,
I will give alms, I will make merry. Thus, deluded by
ignorance.”

The ignorance in question is ignorance of the fact that
the current of desire is something quite outside the Self, its
exhilaration being that of the Gadarene swine as they “rushed
down a steep place into the sea.” For, truly, the end of such
Verse 16. wild careering is, as the Gita puts it, “in a foul hell.” The
fire and brimstone of the medieval Christians and the ingenious
tortures of sadistic hell-makers in India are mere superstitions,
but for all that, there are hells enough, both in this world and
after death, the hells of unsatisfied desire which are entered
Verse 21. by “the triple gate of lust, anger and greed.” Equally true
is it that these hells are “destructive of the Self,” for the Light
of the Self is dissipated among the objects of desire.

In chapter eleven, verse thirty-six, we read of the Rakshasas
fleeing in fear to the uttermost boundaries of the universe.
That was the cosmic aspect of the process and here we are
Verses told how the “dark” ones who are its actual embodiments

195 20 ‘ turn from the Light within and are carried by the fierce

currents of desire through birth after birth into the furthest
abysses of materiality and Self-loss. For, once a Soul has
attached itself to these currents, it is not easy for it to stop
and reverse its course. “Easy is the descent into hell,” as
Virgil wrote; it is the return that is difficult and laborious.

Yet it must always be remembered that underlying all the
^kpral indignation of the text is the knowledge that those who
S^w the path of Darkness do so because they are those who
aid ^ et P*™ 1 ^ the depths of matter, depths that those
and bs^ t ^ ie Light have also plumbed before. The Soul
hrighi- ^shes never; all movements, Dark and Bright, take

BRIGHT AND DARK POWERS 165

place within the One, and so from every depth there is return.

As Plotinus expresses it: “It is not in the soul’s Nature to
touch utter nothingness; the lowest descent is into evil and,
so far, into non-being; but to utter nothing, never. When
the soul begins again to mount, it comes not to something alien
but to its very self.”

Before concluding this chapter it is necessary to say a few Verses
words about the last two verses, which, with their command 33i 24 '
to refer all matters to the authority of the Shastra, have been
and are the delight of orthodoxy. But to take Shastra here
as meaning merely the traditional scriptures is to misunder-
stand the whole tenor of the Gita, with its reiterated counsel
to take refuge in the buddhi (e.g. chapter ii, verse 49) and its
constant teaching that all knowiedge is to be found in one’s
own heart.

The fact is that the Shastra in its highest sense means the
Threefold Ruler ( shasaka tray a}, 1 the manas united with the
buddhi and mahat, or, in plain language, the inner knowledge
that is revealed in the heart by the spiritual intuition. This is
the meaning of the Upanishadic counsel to sink the senses in
the mind, the mind in buddhi and the buddhi in the Mahat
Atman or Great Self, and it is to these Inner Rulers that one
should always submit. Following the dictates of that inner
Light one should perform all actions in the world, and he who
ignores that inner Voice, “to follow the promptings of desire,
attains neither success nor happiness nor the highest Goal.”

1 It is only fair to state that this is not the accepted etymology of the
word shastra. I am quite aware that many will consider it a fanciful one.

Nor is it at all intended to make light of the Shastra in the outer sense. The
inspired writings of sages are our greatest heritage and their value arises just
from the fact that they are transcriptions of the inner Shastra as it revealed
itself in the hearts of men of great inner attainments. At die same time,_ it
must not be forgotten that they were not delivered in the void but in dehmte
conditions of time, place and society — which change.

CHAPTER XVII

THE YOGA OF THE THREEFOLD FAITH

Verse i. The seventeenth chapter commences with a question that
is often asked: what is the status of the man who sets aside
the injunctions of Shastra (inner or outer), not in order to
follow the promptings of desire (such a one has already been
described) but full of faith in the rightness of what he is doing ?
But this question, though so common, is based upon a mis-
understanding of the nature of faith. Faith is sometimes
confused with intellectual belief based upon a weighing of
probabilities, and still more often with a blind acceptance of
credal orthodoxies rooted for the most part in nothing more
than the instinct for social conformity. But the former is
more properly termed reasoned opinion, while the latter
scarcely merits any mental label at all, being a mere verbal
habit based on herd-instinct.

True faith is something of a much higher nature. It is
the reflection in the lower mind of knowledge already possessed
by the higher and the buddhi. We read in chapter thirteen,
verse twenty-five, of those who on hearing, perhaps for the
first time, of higher truths at once give themselves up to them.
They are able to do so because of this irradiation of the lower
mind by the knowledge of the higher, an irradiation which
gives a sense of certainty akin to that which a man feels on
understanding a geometrical proposition, the only difference
being that, in the case of faith, the grounds for that certainty
ave not entered the brain-consciousness. Therefore it was
1 ^Hermes said:

. *fiy word doth go before thee to the truth. But mighty
5$e‘^und, and when it hath been led by word up to a certain
lT *t, iit hath the power to come before thee to the truth.

166

THE YOGA OF THE THREEFOLD FAITH 167

And having thought over all these things, and found them
consonant with those which have already been translated by
the reason, it (the mind) hath believed and found its rest in
that Fair Faith.”

It is important to understand this. The world is full of
men seeking to persuade others to believe in this or that
doctrine, book, or teacher, but the blind belief which they
demand is, if given, nothing but the inert response of a tdmasik
mind and has no connection whatever with the Fair Faith of
which Hermes speaks. Blind beliefs are perpetually coming
into conflict with ascertained truth and it is for this reason
that the believers are so fanatically propagandist, for they seek
to silence their own doubts by the shouting of many voices.

The Fair Faith, on the other hand, can never come into
conflict with knowledge, for it is knowledge even though its
grounds have not been realised. Nevertheless, the lower
min d is treacherous and many things which have a soul of
truth within them may not themselves be true. The mind
translates its knowledge in terms of its own concepts. Thus
the true faith that there is fundamental justice in the Cosmos
may lend its certainty to erroneous notions of a personal God
and final Judgment Day in cases where such concepts fill the
mind. 1

Truth must be all-inclusive and harmonious. It cannot
form into little eddies and closed systems. The only safe
course is, as Hermes says, to think over all things and to
accept those which are found to fit in with what is already
known in one harmonious whole. If it be asked in what way
this differs from the procedure of the so-called rationalist, it

1 Occasionally though not often, a man is able to keep his faith un~
contaminated by his mental furniture. For instance, the Catholic mystic,
Juliana of Norwich, worried about the fate of the heretics and heathen*
received from a vision of Christ the assurance that “all manner of thing,
will be well,” an assurance that she seems simply to have accepted alt^r^
it was at utter variance with the teachings of her Church which, dougfe^
formed the concepts of her mind. Much more typical, though, isJ f
of St Teresa, whose Catholicism made her mould the reveiatio*^^*
vision into the ridiculous statement that in the case of a heretic
of the Soul was irretrievably shattered!

Verses
2, 3.

168 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

must be answered that the latter accepts only the data of the
senses and the logical conclusions of the mind upon them,
while the follower of the Fair Faith accepts the data coming
from above and then proceeds to work over their interpretation
until he can express them in a form consonant with reason.

The necessity for this “working over” arises because the
mind in which the knowledge is reflected is a thing of many
colours, being made up of the gums. “The faith of each is
shaped to his own nature.” If a man can rise to his true Self
he is no more concerned with faith for he has knowledge, but
as long as that knowledge has to be reflected in the lower mind
it is inevitable that it should take on the colours of that mind.

^ The true Man is the Knowledge which makes up the higher
Self, and when that knowledge has to show itself as faith, that
faith is as much of the true Man as is able to manifest within
the limits of his personality. Therefore is it said: “A man
consists of his faith; that which his faith is, he is even that.”
That is the reason why those who have accomplished great
deeds, whether like Joan of Arc they possessed what is called
religion, or whether like Napoleon they believed but in their
own “destiny,” have always been filled with faith. Their
deeds have been accomplished by the power of their higher
Selves, and that power was available to them because those
Selves were reflected in their hearts in the form of faith.

Not only is his faith the Man himself; the mm which is
given to it by his mind is also his lower, personal self, for the
expression of his faith depends on which of the three gunas is
dominant in his personality. A sattvik man will give his
faith sattvik expression, and so with the other types. This
comes out very clearly in the objects of men’s worship. The
only object of worship to the man of knowledge is the Atman
■>, himself and in all beings, but those who live by faith alone
^feel that unperceived Atman as a wondrous Power, sensed
jp^ernal things and worshipped accordingly. Sattvik men
ft •‘'J Its presence in the great awe-inspiring forces of
Sun and Wind and Water, and so will “worship

THE YOGA OF THE THREEFOLD FAITH 169

the Gods.” As their faith becomes purified they will turn
more and more to the spiritual power behind those forces and
leave the outer forms.

Rajasik types will sense the same Power as it rushes fiercely
in the desire-currents and so will worship yakshas and rakshasas,
the personified consciousness behind desire for wealth and
angry violence respectively. Those in whom tamas pre-
dominates will feel their imagination captivated by the fact
of death and so the shades of the dead will draw their
worship.

In modern civilisation, too, these types appear in the nature-
mysticism of a Wordsworth, in the all too common worship
of wealth and power that shows itself in a morbid interest in
the lives of the wealthy and powerful, and in the devotion to
the so-called spirits of the dead who are the Gods of the
spiritist cult, though in this last case there is also an admixture
of rajasik curiosity.

It is not only in the objects of worship that the influences of Verses
the gunas make themselves felt; they show also in such things 7 ~ 10 '
as the type of food eaten. Western readers may be inclined
to see very little connection between faith and food, and on the
other hand, in India, there is a tendency to see only too much
connection. The true course, as always, lies in the middle.

Since the body is built up of the food that is taken into it, and
since, also, the taste of food forms an important and regular
portion of our sense-life, it is obvious that both the quality
and taste of food will have a significance for him who is trying
to follow the Path, though by no means the excessive signific-
ance that is sometimes attached to it in India. No amount of
merely sattvik eating will suffice to make a man spiritual.

The sacrifice iyajna) which the Gita mentions next must
not be limited to the ceremonial sacrifices of ancient Indj$*

The yajita of the Gita means sacrificial action in general^
dedication of one’s goods and deeds and self to the sery'*
the Life in all. The sattvik man will do this, not ouj/
desire for personal reward, even in the shape of.hfe 0

170 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

salvation, but because his sattvik nature reflects the knowledge
of the Cosmic Sacrifice and impels him to participate therein.
Verse 12. The sacrifice of the rajasik man is, as might be expected,
tainted by desire, and so he sacrifices in order to gain some
benefit for himself, and usually denies the possibility of action
that is free from such desire. In inferior types the mainspring
of his actions is to be found in the wish to be known as a
religious man, philanthropist or patriot.

Verse 13. Tamasik sacrifice is a still lower type, in which only the
semblance of sacrifice is shown. It is not governed by any
rule or principle (vidhi) nor has it any sanction in the inner
Shastra {mantra). No actual giving away is involved (asrish-
tanna ) and the whole performance is carried out without any
skill (dakshinam). The motivation of such so-called sacrifices
is usually mere instinct for social conformity.

It would be tedious to comment at length on the other ways
in which a man’s faith may manifest. The list is not a mere
miscellaneous collection. Worship, food, sacrificial action,
self-discipline and charity are all important aspects of the
spiritual life, and it is for this reason that the Gita has gone into
such detail about them.

Some words must, however, be said about tapasya, usually
translated as austerity, but better rendered as self-discipline.
Verses Tapasya does not mean standing on one leg in a forest nor
5 ’ >19 ' piercing the body with sharp spikes. Such torture of the body,
common both in medieval Europe and in India, is the tamasik
man’s idea of tapasya. Identifying himself with his physical
body, he can see no way of making spiritual progress but
by forcing that body to be passive under torture, 1 and so he
goes about naked or wears hair -shirts, o r else he starves himself
'nd then mistakes the hallucinations of a weakened brain for
ritual visions.

1

e *£re * s n0 answer t0 this to urge that such self-torturers often hold an
T^er) y dualistic theory of the relationship between soul and body,
■koou/*^ ? 0Iie thm S and perception quite another. It is just because they
the S0 ^ing but the body that they imagine that bodily torture will liberate

THE YOGA OF THE THREEFOLD FAITH 171

Discipline of the body is quite a different thing from its
injury by such practices. The body is the field in which we
have to work and, later, will be needed for the service of the
One. To weaken or destroy it by injudicious austerities is to
destroy a valuable instrument. It is sometimes urged that the
body is unreal and transient and that the man of knowledge
will not care whether it functions well or badly, whether it lives
or dies. But sucii a view is based on misunderstandin g . Those
who are practising self-discipline are not men of knowledge
but, rather, men trying to gain knowledge. A weakened body,
as the Upanishad has taught, 1 means a weakened mind, and
if the body is unnecessarily abandoned before the Goal is
reached, it only means that valuable years will have to be spent
in educating a new one and in bringing it to the point at which
the Path was left. The true attitude to one’s body should be
to treat it as one treats a riding horse, something to be in-
telligently disciplined, adequately cared for and properly used,
and not as something either to be allowed to wander off at its
own free will or else to be beaten to death or uselessness.

There is a further consideration that is equally powerful.
The outer senses are but the manifestations of the inner or
mental ones. The mortification of the outer leaves the inner
ones quite intact. Indeed, the sense-powers, forcibly sup-
pressed without, are driven inwards and revenge themselves
in a riot of imaginative phantasy within, which will disturb
the spiritual life far more effectually than ever the outer sense-
life could have done.

Self-discipline must begin, not with the senses, but with the
mind. In the enumeration of the six mental endowments
that form part of the fourfold qualification for knowledge r
the Brahman (see Chapter XV), shama , or control of miA - ^* 1
precedes dama 3 the control of sense. The disciple must ■ , ^ *
all his energies to the task of controlling his unruly mi- « ^
when that is accomplished he may be sure that the ouSr -senses
will offer no serious obstacles to being brought uvder control*

1 Chandogya Upanishad, vi, 7.

172 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Trying to control the senses without having first subjugated
the mind is like trying to bail water out of a sinking ship
without first stopping the leak. Even in cases of definitely
inappropriate sense-indulgence, the inner phantasying about
the objects of enjoyment does far more damage to the inner
life than the actual outward gratification.

^ Another point that must be noted is that the mind cannot,
under ordinary conditions, be treated as something separate
from and independent of the body. It is true that the mind
is the crux of the whole discipline, but it is also true that the
ordinary disciple is quite unable to rise to the level of function-
ing in his true or higher mind and that the mind in which he
does live is very closely bound up with the physical body. It
is easy to talk about being indifferent to bodily sensations, but
nevertheless, to say nothing of severe pains, a few hours in a
stuffy room will destroy almost anyone’s power of clear think-
ing, and a few days of overwork or loss of sleep will came
self-control to vanish in gusts of irritability. This being so, it
is obviously foolish for the ordinary disciple to attempt a fine
disregard of the bodily and external aspects of life when, all
the time, his mental life is intimately bound up with them.
“The contacts of matter come and go,” as we read in chapter
two, but while the disciple should “endure them bravely,” he
will not, in the earlier stages, 1 be able to disregard them
altogether without disastrous results.

14. So much for the negative side of tapasyd. On the positive
side what is needed is an harmonious control of body, speech
and mind. The body is to be disciplined by being used for
' the service of the Gods, the Twice-born (of the genuinely
gQiritually illumined, that is, not of those who merely arrogate
ind. title to themselves on the strength of outward ceremonies
alcritil, of Teachers and all Knowets of the Truth, and further,
by tu practice of cleanliness, straightforwardness, harmless-
ness to all beings, and brahmacharya.

1 It should be remembered that these last six chapters are inevitably
to some extent recapitulatory.

THE YOGA OF THE THREEFOLD FAITH 173

The last word connotes control and not suppression of the
sex-forces. A neurotic celibacy with the so-called unconscious
mind full of thwarted sex, issuing in a welter of more or less
disguised phantasyjls the very worst condition to be in for one
who seeks the inner life. Such a condition may, like extreme
bodily weakness, give rise to strange experiences and visions,
but it will quite effectually prevent any real treading of the
Path. Sex will be transcended; it cannot be suppressed —

witMapenity. Vs — — - — -

It is important to note that a mere renunciation of sex by
the conscious mind and will is not enough. Many would-be
sannyasis in India, and I suppose some people in the West,
having heard or read of the virtues of brahmacharya screw up
their wills to a renunciation of all sex. The inevitable result is
that the unsatisfied sex-desires are repressed into what psych-
ologists term “the unconscious.” From the point of view here
adopted the term unconscious is a misnomer, for nothing exists
that is not supported by and floating in the consciousness.
What is really meant is that the mind-consciousness ceases to
pay attention to them. However we may phrase it, the fact
remains that these desires, with the psychic energy that is
locked up in them, prevent all peace of mind, and, if denied
attention, manifest as disturbing dreams and in other ways,
such as bad temper. The only remedy is to bring them once
more into the focus of attention; but in such cases — namely,
where sex-desires have been repressed — this is usually im-
practicable, since to do so involves tormenting the mind with
thoughts of having fallen from the Path or with division in
will.

A mind at peace with itself and a unified will are absat:| y
essentials on the Path. The disciple should therefr (3 ,-^Ss
content to grow harmoniously as a flower grows, andi&Ct try
to force his development by renunciations which spring from
the will alone and not from the whole being. The sex-
desires must be de-energised by withdrawal and not pushed
away by mere will. Only when they are drained of their

174 the YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

energy is it safe to “renounce” them and then, indeed, re-
nunciation is no longer needed. 1

Of hannlessness (ahinsa) it is quite sufficient to say that
one who seeks to serve the Life in all must certainly abstain
from killing living creatures for his “sport” or even, in
ordinary circumstances, for his food. “All beings tremble
before punishment; to all life is dear. Judging others by
yourself, slay not, neither cause to slay.” 2 To cast eyes of
greed at the flesh of a fellow-being is no act for a disciple of
this Path. Rather will he remember the perhaps legendary
story of how the Buddha in a previous life gave his own flesh
to feed a starving tigress and her cubs.

In addition to the above-mentioned discipline of the body
he will discipline his speech, taking care that it is always
truthful and helpful:

“Govern the lips

As they were palace doors, the King within;

Tranquil and fair and courteous be all words

Which from that presence win/ 5 8

While being truthful he must avoid the common egoistic
fault of making his devotion to the truth an excuse for inflicting
pain upon his hearers. This control of speech is by no means
easy* as all who have tried to practise it are aware. In any
case it is not possible to bring it to perfection until the mind
is also disciplined.

The mental discipline is in fact the most essential of all,
K since it is in the raising of the mind to its true nature and in
Vcm xc fringing about its union with the buddhi that the essence of

hrhXhe above should not be interpreted as urging a free yielding to sex-
That too is fatal for the Path. As always, it is the Middle Path
wo lu 4 s to be followed. What is meant is that the desires should be
kept L.<\the field of attention, there to he dealt with by detachment of the
Self frot them and consequent de-energising of them. To push them
out of sight into one of the lumber-rooms of the mind is not to deal with
them at all. One of the absolute essentials of the Path is that the disciple
should face fearlessly whatever is in him, no matter how much his higher
nature resents its presence. Self-ignorance and self-deceit are absolutely
fetal.

2 Dhammapada , 1-30.

8 Light of Ada,

THE YOGA OF THE THREEFOLD FAITH 175

the inner life is found. The mind must be tranquil, gentle
and free from wandering thoughts. The word for the last
quality is mauna, which literally means “silent,” but, as the
context shows, the silence in question is a mental one and
signifies the ability to remain calmly still in the face of those
outer stimuli which usually make the mind jump about like
the monkey to which it is often compared.

In addition, it must be Se/f-controlled, able to direct or
check its course of thought by its own inherent power, depend-
ing neither on the spur of physical necessity, nor on the lure
of some outward gain; in the later stages at least it should
not even depend for stillness upon the hjqmotic rhythm of
mantra repetition. Lastly, it must be pure in feeling too,
free from all fear and hatred, filled with love and great
compassion for all beings. It need hardly be added that if
this discipline is to bear spiritual fruit it must be carried
out harmoniously, without any one-sided exaggerations or
fanaticisms, and with the sattvik characteristic of disregard of verse 17.
any personal gain. Love of the Atman, not fear of the world,
must be the motive force behind the effort.

The chapter ends with the threefold designation of the Verse 23.
Brahman , Om Tat Sat. This well-known mantra is intended
here to show the Path along which a sattvik faith will lead the ,
aspiraiit, thus indirectly answering the initial question of the
chapter. Om, as is well known, signifies the Brahman, but
also stands for the three great states of Consciousness 1 which
lead up to the Fourth or transcendental state. With Om the
acts of sacrifice and discipline that constitute the treading of Verse 24.
the Path are commenced. That is to say, the attainment of
the true Self, the Consciousness, though in its separated,
individual form, is the task of the first stage.

The next stage, marked by what we have seen to be the Verse 25.
typically sattvik characteristic of abandonment of all desire
for fruit, is the bringing about of the union of that individual
Self with the unindividuated buddhi, the cognitive aspect of

1 J&g ra t> swapna and sushuptL See Appendix C.

176 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

the Mahat Atman, the One great Life. This stage is referred
to by the word Tat (That) because it is through union with
the Light Ocean of the buddhi that true knowledge of That,
the transcendental Reality, is gained.

Verse 26. The last stage is symbolised by Sat, which stands for Being,
also for Goodness and Reality. This stage is the attainment
of the Brahman and this attainment is the “praiseworthy
deed” which the text mentions as yet another meaning of the
word.

But we have seen in the fourteenth chapter (verse 26) that,
instead of withdrawing his Light from the world and merging
it in the unmanifested Brahman, it is possible for him who
has won to the Goal to stay and serve the One, crucified in
the countless suffering forms within the bitter Sea. . There-
Verse 27. fore the Gita adds that steadfastness in sacrifice, austerity and
gift is also Sat; meaning thereby that he who maintains his
life of Sacrifice and offers up his dearly bought Salvation as
a great Gift of Light to those who walk in darkness has no
less attained than he who goes beyond to the other Shore.
His Sat is “action for the sake of That” in all. Hence is it
Verse 23. said that by this mantra of the triple Path have been brought
forth of old the Teachers, 1 Knowledge and the Sacrifices —
the Sacrifices, namely, of those liberated Souls who find
Nirvana in the very midst of Sorrow.

1 The word Brahmanas in this verse is usually taken to refer to the books
of that name. It seems more appropriate to take the word as referring to the
Brahmans — i.e. Teachers of the Knowledge.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE YOGA OF THE RENUNCIATION OF LIBERATION 1

This chapter commences with a question about the nature of
true renunciation which arises out of the conclusion of the
last. There it was taught that it is possible for the liberated
soul to remain steadfast in service even after its liberation.
Current teaching in India, however, taught that all action must
be renounced. The karma yoga might be a useful and neces-
sary preparation but, since all action springs from illusion, it
was only intended to lead up to that final renunciation of all
action that was known as sannyasa. The point is an im-
portant one since, if this latter idea is correct, it cuts away all
possibility of there being any help for man from his liberated
brothers; he who acts is still in bondage and he who is
liberated cannot act.

The intention of this chapter is to show that this idea is
not correct and accordingly Sri Krishna starts by making a
distinction between samyasa (renunciation) and tyaga. The Verse
former, he says, means the renunciation of desire-prompted
actions. The mind, united with the buddhi, no longer flows
outwards into the desire-currents but acts from the buddhi-
determined knowledge of what is right. Obviously, though, it
is still possible for the samyasi to enjoy the fruits of his right
action and when, in the course of time, his knowledge brings
him to the threshold of the Brahma Nirvana there will be
nothing to prevent his taking it and passing for ever from the
manifested world.

Therefore Sri Krishna goes on to teach that there is a

* In some editions this chapter i$ entitled simply samyasa yoga, but that
is the title of chapter five. A few also give it as moksha yoga , » but the full
title is moksha sannyasa yoga . _ .

Verse 3 .

Verse 6 .

Verses
li 3.

178 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

further stage which he terms tyaga . 1 Tyaga consists in the
giving up or dedicating to the One Life in all of the fruits
which accrue from even right and desireless actions. In spite
of the views of some teachers that all action should be abandoned
as leading to bondage. He asserts most categorically that acts
of sacrifice, discipline and self-giving (the actions of the
Path, as was pointed out at the end of the last chapter) should
not be abandoned, for they are purifiers.

Even these actions, though, should be performed without
attachment, without, that is, the feeling of doing them for one’s
own personal purity. The fruit, also, which accrues from such
action is to be set free for the service of the One Life, in the
spirit that prompted the Mahayana followers of the Bodhi-
sattva Path to make over the merit of their actions to the
welfare of all beings. Some there are who object that such
helping of others is mere illusion and would involve an
infringement of the law of Karma. It will be time to listen to
that objection when the objectors themselves deny ever having
received any help through the medium of books or living
teachers. Others there are who are kept back from this Path
by a false humility. It will be time enough, they say, to think
of such service when we ourselves are liberated and it becomes
a real possibility. But that is a mistake. It is only he who,
from the very start, has accustomed himself to the idea of
treading the Path for the sake of all who will be able when
face to face with the actual bliss of the Brahma Nirvana to
be certain of being steadfast in sacrifice and of giving up his
bliss to serve his suffering brothers.

This is the luminous sattvik tyaga as opposed to those
other types of renunciation which spring from laziness, sense
of inferiority, or desire to avoid the pain and suffering of life.

1 In popular usage sannyasa and tyaga are more or less synonyms* but
in addition to the meaning of “relinquishment*” tyaga has also the mean-
ing of donation* of giving away (see Apte). I cannot think of any one
English word which combines the two concepts of renouncing and giving
except* perhaps* the word dedication. My friend Pandit J. C. Chatterji
pointed out to me that the past participle* tyakta , is used of offerings made
to the Gods in the sacrificial fire.

RENUNCIATION OF LIBERATION 179

Such “sour-grapes” renunciation is definitely inferior. It is
a foul slander (whether ancient or modem) to represent the
renunciation of the Buddha as having been of that sort. Truer
insight was shown by the author of The Light of Asia when he
made him say when about to leave his home:

“This will I do because the woeful cry
Of life and all flesh living cometh up
Into my ears, and all my soul is full
Of pity for the sickness of the world;

Which I will heal, if healing may be found
By uttermost renouncing and great strife.”

Love, not fear, is the mainspring of all true renunciation.

The doing of actions because they are in harmony with Verse 9.
the Cosmic process as revealed by the buddhi, and so are
“what ought to be done,” but without the pride of agency
and without the desire for personal fruit, is the highest
renunciation. The abandonment of the actions themselves
is impossible as long as the would-be renouncer has a body Verses
and is unnecessary under any circumstances, for the actions IIj
that are performed without any desire for fruit can bring no
bondage to the Soul at any lime.

When desire has been renounced and also personal gain
there is nothing left in action which can bind. To show that
this is no dogma, but a plain fact, the Gita proceeds to give
an analysis of the five factors that are involved in all action, Verse 14.
whether bodily, verbal, or mental. These are the physical
body, the “doer,” that false self which is produced by the union
of the Light with the psycho-physical vehicle, the various
sense-organs, the vital energies ( cheshta ) within the body
and, lastly, the forces accumulated by the karma of one’s
past lives ( daiva ).

That being so, he who, through not having united himself Verses
with the buddhi (akritabuddhi), sees himself, the Atman, as
bound up in actions is quite deluded. If the Self does not
project itself into the forms by the notion “I am the doer,
it can no more be affected by actions than the moon can be
eatzaged in the ripples of a lake. As a Chinese sage has

Verse 19.

Verse 26.

Verse 22.

Verses
23, 25.

Verses

29-32.

180 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

expressed it: “The moon is serenely reflected on the stream,
the breeze passes softly through the pines. . . . When this
is understood, the karma bonds are by nature empty. When
not understood, we all pay for the past debts we have
contracted.” 1

To further elucidate the point, the Gita shows that besides
the nature of the action itself we must consider the actor and
his knowledge. All these factors are shown to be threefold
according to the guna that is predominant. If the action is
not to bind the Soul, all three of these must be sattvik. The
actor must be one who is unattached and free from the sense
of “I”; his knowledge must be that pure knowledge which
sees one indestructible Essence pervading all, “undivided in
the separate beings,” and the action itself must be appropriate,
sanctioned by the inner Ruler and skilfully performed with
regard to the actor’s capacity and to the consequences for
others.

This last statement is sufficient to show that, in advocating
renunciation of the fruit of action, the Gita is not sanctioning
irresponsible acts. The consequences of actions upon others
must always be looked to; it is only the personal gains that
are to be renounced. It is true that there are certain verses
in the Puranas and elsewhere which represent liberated souls
while still on earth as going about laughing and crying and
behaving irresponsibly “like children or idiots.” But these
verses must not be taken literally. The man of Knowledge is
not an idiot, nor does he manifest his liberation by childish
behaviour. It is true that personal thinking will have come to
an end in him, but in its place the Cosmic Ideation manifests
through him, and though his acts may not accord with estab-
lished social conventions they are in harmony with the great
Cosmic Order.

4 - It is not necessary to follow through in detail the threefold
nature of reason ( buddhi ), firmness and pleasure, as the account
given in verses 29 to 39 is perfectly straightforward and needs
1 Yoka DaishL Quoted from Suzuki’s Manual of Zen Buddhism .

RENUNCIATION OF LIBERATION 181

no comment, except to say that the word buddhi here signifies
the ordinary intellect and not the higher buddhi of which so
much mention has been made. The latter is sdttvik in nature
and is beyond the mind, while the former comes under the
influence of all of the gupas and is a mental function. It has,
however, this in common with the higher buddhi that, when
sdttvik, it is able to determine truth upon its own level and, in
so far as intellectual truth is one, it is the same in all.

With verse forty-one, as Shankara has pointed out, a new
section begins. Up to this point the chapter has formed an
integral part of the last block of six chapters and has been
concerned with setting forth in detail the principles underlying
Sri Krishna’s teaching in the earlier chapters. From the point
of view of the disciple they represent the effort to assimilate
and express in intellectual terms the Divine Knowledge
revealed in the Vision of the Cosmic Form. From verse
forty-one onwards the Gita turns to the task of summing up
the whole.

Reference has already been made (chapter iv, v. 13) to
the fourfold order of society. The Divine foundation there
claimed for the classification of men into Brahmans, Kshat-
triyas, Vaishyas and Shudras must not be interpreted as
sanctioning every injustice and prejudice of the orthodox
Hindu caste system. It is not necessary to point out that there
is plenty of evidence that the caste system itself in ancient India
was not always the rigid and lifeless institution that it now is.

In any case, what the Gita is concerned with is not any
particular sociological system, however ancient, but something
far more universal. It is expressly stated that the classification
in question depends upon the gunas manifested in the natures
of the men concerned. Not only in India, but all over the
world there are four great types of men. There is the Brahman,
the teaching, priestly, legal, or “professional” type; the
Kshattriya, the ruling, warrior, statesman type, the “hunting
and shooting man” of the West; the Vaishya, or banking,
merchant, agricultural type, and, lastly, the Shudra, the

i8a THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

servant, manual labourer type. Each of these great types has
rp-rta in well-defined characteristics, sometimes, though not at
all necessarily, inherited by their offspring, and, though some
overlapping undoubtedly occurs, they are at least as well-
marked throughout the world and in all ages as, say, the modern
psychological division into introverts and extroverts.

It must be noted that the qualities by which a man is classified
under one of these types are, in the cases of the Brahman and
Kshattriya at least, of a moral and intellectual nature. A man
is not a Brahman because he is the son of a Brahman , nor even
Verse 42. because he performs professional priestly functions. He is a
Brahman if he possesses certain qualities, such as control of
mind and senses, self-discipline, forgiveness, straightforward-
ness and wisdom. In this the Gita agrees with the Buddha,
who also said: “Not by matted hair, nor by lineage, nor by
birth is one a Brahman. He is a Brahman in whom there are
truth and righteousness.” 1

The four types have also an important symbolic significance
for the inner life. The Brahman , detached and pure, seeing
the One in all, stands for the sattvik buddhi. The Kshattriya ,
ruler, fearless and much-enduring, is the pure rajasik manas,
the higher mind. That is why Arjuna, the individual Self, is
represented as a Kshattriya. The Vaishya, concerned with
the getting of wealth, symbolises the desire-nature ( rajas mixed
with tamas ), always flowing outwards, while the Shudra, born to
serve, stands for the tamasik physical body, instrument of all.
Verse 45. The verses which follow describe how perfection is to be
won by being intent on one’s own duty ( dharma ). The word
dharma signifies the quality or natural function of a thin g or
person. Thus, the dharma of fire is to burn and the dharma of
a Kshattriya is to manifest the qualities mentioned in verse 43.
In these verses we must bear in mind the inner as well as the
outer significance of the fourfold system.

Verses Perfection is to be attained by using one’s own characteristic
46> 47 ' functions in the service of That “from which this manif estation

1 Dhammapada , 393.

RENUNCIATION OF LIBERATION 183

has proceeded.” The attempt to perform the dharma of another
is fraught with danger since it will be an attempt to build one’s
life on the basis of an undeveloped 3 and so inferior, function.

It is like the successful comedian who aspires to take a tragic
part, the result being usually a complete failure. The dharma
to which one is called may seem by human standards a defective
or inferior one but, on deeper analysis, it will be found that the
same is true of all dharmas, just because they are relative and
perfection is only in the Whole. Nevertheless, all are necessary
to the working of the Cosmos and one can “see Infinity within
a grain of sand.”

From the inner point of view an equally important meaning
attaches to this performance of duty without regard for the
fruits, this worship of the One through one’s own natural
function. Man is not a creature of this physical plane alone,
and perfection will be attained when all the various levels of
his being, as symbolised by the four types, fulfil their natural
functions in perfection. Even the desire-nature, the most
troublesome part of man, has its work to perform in the
Cosmos and, once again, the Gita is teaching that instead of
the Light’s being withdrawn from the manifested universe,
in the manner of the Sankhyas, it should function free and
unattached on all the levels. The tamasik inertia of the
physical body and the fierce rush of the desire-mind are to
be transmuted by non-attachment into stability and energy re-
spectively. Thus controlled and mastered they, no less than the
luminous huddhi, are fit instruments for the service of the One.

This yoga by which all the levels are transmuted is the Path Verse 51.
to mastery of the Cosmos. The disciple must be united to
the One Life by the pure huddhi, the wasteful rush of the
mind ( atmanam ) must be checked by firmness so that it moves
by its own power and is no longer pulled and pushed by the
Mind forces of attraction and repulsion. The objects of the
senses, no longer considered as objects of personal enjoyment,
must be dedicated 1 to the service of the One Life. Studiously Verse sz.

1 Tydkta. The sense of dedication is dominant here.

184 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

detaching himself (vivikta sevi) from the forms, constant in
that inner meditation which needs no special time or place or
Verse 53. posture, he will cut the knot of egoism so that the distorted
movements of lust, hate, violence and greed to which that knot
gives birth will cease and die.

Then is the disciple ripe for becoming the Eternal Brahman.
He who was human has become the Cosmic Man, his feet —
no more of clay — firm based on earth, his head high in the
cloudless sky above. Of all the levels of the manifested world
he is the master. Nowhere is anything he need reject, for all
Verse 54. that is, is verily the Brahman. Serene in his true nature, he
now, if he has come along the path of Love, attains to that
supreme devotion which has no care for any conceivable
personal gain, not even for the gready coveted goal of Liber-
ation. Caring not for the intense bliss of personal liberation,
the bliss of sheer self-loss in the absolutely blissful Brahmik
Being from which there is no return, he seeks only to serve
Sri Krishna, the Purushottama, in whatever sphere his service
is required.

“Neither the bliss of heaven, nor yet world empire, no
sway in Brahmik spheres, nor in the magic Land of Heart’s
Desire, no yogik powers, nor freedom from rebirth are sought
by those who have found refuge at Thy feet.” 1
Verse 55. By this great love he knows Sri Krishna in His essential
being, the Purushottama of whom we have written in chapter
15. He is the true advaiti or non-dualist, for he knows no
Verse 56. dualism of “this” and “That,” no opposition of Nirvana and
the world. He has no need to flee from one into the other, for,
in all states he sees the one Eternal Krishna and, by his utter
self-transcending love, he sees His inmost heart as none
other can, sees it and dwells therein.

Thus through his love he throws away liberation, to find
it where he stands. He may and does perform all actions
freely: freely he serves Him who is ever-free. And ever in
his heart he sees Sri Krishna’s feet. Through His grace,
1 Srimad BhSgawata , x, 16-37.

RENUNCIATION OF LIBERATION 185

the calm and blissful Light that streams from Him, 1 wherever
he may be, whatever he may do, he dwells eternally within the
Great Abode. 2

At this point Sri Krishna drops the general exposition and
speaks direct to His disciple’s heart. He promises him that
if he puts aside all selfish fear and clings to Him, the inner
Lord, His power, the power which sways the universe will
carry him past all the obstacles and dangers that confront
him on the way. At the same time, He adds the warning that
the treading of the Path, the fight against the embattled
Powers of Darkness, is, in the end, inevitable. His egoistic Verses
desire for enjoyment and fear of suffering may hold him - 8l 59 '
back from the fight for the time, but in the end the remorseless
pressure of cosmic evolution will force bis feet along the Path
he shrinks from now, and that same egoism that held him back,
fatted like a beast for sacrifice, will be remorselessly destroyed.

For that great Ruling Power which guides the Cosmos isS Verse 61.
seated in the heart of every being. Whirling as though upon
a potter’s wheel, none can escape “the Spirit’s plastic stress.”
However much man may proclaim himself an independent
ego existing for and in himself, the Ruling Power of Spirit
is w ithin him and will not let him rest. Man is, as it were,
bound to the Centre of his being by an elastic cord; the more
he strains at it, the greater will be the reaction. This is why
an exaggerated movement of materialism is followed by an
equally exaggerated religiosity, an age of licence by an age

of Puritan restraint.

Sooner or later, all must tread the Path; but in the mean-
while there is no compulsion. The will of man, a spark of
the Divine willing, is ineluctably free, and no true Teacher
ever forces his disciple even for the latter’s good. Having
revealed the Secret Path of Wisdom, all that He says is. Verse 63.
“fraying reflected on it fully, do as thou wishest. The Path

1 The word prasada means both grace and also tranquil dantg.

2 This is the meaning of the Vaishnava doctrine of the rejection of liber-
ation: it is also the Bodhisattva doctrine of the Buddhists, the teaching of the
apratishihita Nirvana .

186 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

is free to all; each has the right to enter but none will ever
compel him or trespass in the least upon his will.

But why await the age-long grinding of the cycles, when
all the while the Middle Path exists, and may be trodden by
whoever will? Avoiding the lures of sensual desire on the
Verse 62. one hand, and of reactionary asceticism on the other, let the
disciple consecrate his whole being to the service of the Divine
Power dwelling in his heart. Prefacing His words by the
statement that what He is about to say is the ultimate Mystery,
the supreme teaching, Krishna repeats the verse with which
He had concluded chapter nine:

“Fix thy mind on Me, give thy heart’s love to Me, con-
verse 65. secrate all thy actions to My service, hold thine own self as
nothing before Me. To Me then shall thou come; truly I
promise for thou art dear to Me.”

Verse <56. “Abandoning all supports, 1 take refuge in Me alone.

Fear not; I will liberate thee from all sins.”

Who is this “Me,” refuge in whom is thus proclaimed to be the
ultimate secret? Sri Krishna has here returned to the final
teaching that He divulged in chapter fifteen, the secret of
the Purushottama, the highest Divine Spirit, poised beyond all
opposites, supporting all opposites and yet involved in none.
He definitely states that this teaching is even more profoundly
secret than that of verse sixty-two which spoke of the great
Ruling Power which dwells in the hearts of all, a Power which
He spoke of in the third person while now He uses the first.

For this ultimate Being of His is not to be approached
through philosophic knowledge; that leads to the experience
of Him as undifferentiated Brahman: nor through yogik
meditation; that leads to the experience of a Consciousness
that dwells, luminous but yet impersonal, within the hearts
of all. Rather, it is to be approached by a power which dwells
in that most apparently limited and entangled of all thin gs,
the human personality as such.

1 Dharman. The word dharma has many meanings, but ultimately it
comes from the verb dhri, meaning to support.

RENUNCIATION OF LIBERATION 187

Sublimely sweep the heavenly spheres in their impersonally
ordered rhythm: profoundly surge the great impersonal tides
of ocean: calm with an utter peace is all-enfolding Space.
Tom by our personal passions, weary of our personal com-
plexities, bewildered at our inability to manage our personal
relationships, we escape with relief into the liberating experi-
ence of impersonality and a marvellous calm descends upon
our lacerated hearts. Yet who can hold with mountain, sea
or sky that spiritual converse that man holds with man. It is
only against our personal background, only because we stand
all the time on a firm basis of personal feeling, that we are able
to enjoy the adventure into impersonality. A world devoid
of personality would be, not merely a poorer world, but an
infinitely poorer world. Hidden in the very heart of our
personal rottenness is the mystic Jewel, unknown to the
impersonal being of Gods, who therefore covet human birth,
the innermost treasure of man, Sri Krishna’s richest and
intensest being, approachable alone through personal surrender
and personal love.

It is not true that personality is mere illusion to be dis-
solved in bare impersonal vastness. The greatest men we
meet in the spiritual world shine with more, not less, per-
sonality than do common men, and, when we pass beyond
them to the great Divine Incarnations, Sri Krishna, Rama,
Buddha, Christ, we find the same personal quality raised, as it
were, to an infinite intensity. The calm, compassionate gaze
of the Buddha, the burning intensity of Christ and the laughing
intimate glances of Sri Krishna’s dancing eyes are all infinitely
personal, and it is just these qualities that draw the hearts of
men and draw them with a strength that is far beyond the
power of all “teaching.”

Nor, philosophy and intellectual difficulties notwithstanding,
does this innermost Divine value vanish away into a mere
ocean of impersonality on the withdrawal of the visible Form.
As the Gita itself has told us, “that which is real neve: ceases
to be.” Deep calls to deep in a language far transcending all

188 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

philosophy. “Our most precious Stone,” as the alchemists
said, “has been cast upon the dunghill,” and those who have
so cast it have been the abstraction-loving philosophers.

It is this that is the final secret, the indefinable essence that
is hidden in and gives its value to personality, a strange and
magical something which eludes all intellectual analysis, and,
indeed, which vanishes before the gaze of the mere philosopher
like the Yaksha before the eyes of Indra in the Kenopanishad.

Therefore Sri Krishna, having in these eighteen chapters
prepared, as it were, the setting, now puts into place the
central jewel, the glowing heart of the whole. He drops all
else and speaks in these concluding verses of Himself alone,
of His richest and most secret being, knowable to the heart of
man alone.

Not to any giving up of personality and personal feeling does
He urge His friend, but to a combing out of its tangles, a
re-orientation and centreing of it so that he may behold the
central marvel that none who has ever even dimly seen can
ever again forget, a glowing Lotus blooming in the Void, in its
heart the precious Stone that shines with a Dark Light more
lovely than all colours of the world.

“Fix thy mind on Me; give thy heart’s love to Me” To
such a one, giving himself in ecstasy of love, there comes the
free response of love, the pressure of the hand, the strong
support, as unfettered and as free from all thoughts of
“deserving” as is the love of man to man at best. “To Me,
then, shalt thou come; truly I promise, for thou art dear to
Me.”

This is the mystery of what is termed Grace, Kripa, some-
thing that is beyond even the all-pervading. Divine Com-
passion ( koruna ), that shines alike on all who open themselves
to it, something utterly incalculable and unpredictable, the
mystic power that flashes from heart to heart, the final un-
determinable power of love.

The one thing necessary is that we should abandon the
supports ( dharmdn ) on which we have hitherto based and

RENUNCIATION OF LIBERATION 189

propped our egos in the attempt to enhance their sense of
value and security, the supports of caste and ashrama, of
wealth and social position, of learning or of virtue, all those
supports, in fact, which have enabled us to say: “I am I, a
person not without importance in the world.” All these
trumpery pedestals we must abandon and base ourselves on
Him alone who is the Support of all the worlds. Then to the
free Soul freed of its entanglements with self, freely placing its
hand in the hand of the Ever-free Krishna, comes the free gift
of love: “fear not; I will liberate thee from all sins.”

He who attempts to stand on the basis of his own personal
merits, his good deeds, his yogik skill or philosophic insight,
must stand the test of having them examined in the fire, and,
if they fail the test, he still is bound. But he who, in the very
depths of his heart, stands on his love and friendship for Sri
Krishna, stands on something that existed before the universe
was born and is therefore not subject to its kdrmik accounts.
Not “alone to the Alone” but free for the Free he lives, giving
forever the service that love asks of love and friend of friend.

The actual fighting he must still undertake: Krishna is
charioteer and bears no arms. Nevertheless, His inexhaus-
tible power will flow through all the vestures of the dedicated
Soul, His faultless counsel will guide in all perplexity, and,
at the moment of supreme peril, when the resistless magic
weapon is hurled by Kama’s unerring aim, His hand will
press down the chariot into the solid earth so that the blazing
missile passes harmlessly overhead. With Him as charioteer
the victory is sure.

This is that taking of refuge in Krishna which, when
accomplished, frees the disciple from all other duties. No
longer has he to think of any duties of his own, worldly or
unworldly, nor of any mastery of his separate vehicles, for his
whole life on all levels is consecrated to Him and belongs to
Him alone. Gradually as he proceeds, the beloved Krishna
becomes more and more the heart and focus of his life until
no thought or action is performed except in relationship to

190 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Him. 1 In the place of his separate individual life there flows
through him the One Divine Life of all beings, “the Light that
lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” United in
his heart with Him who is the heart of that One Life,
all “sins” drop from him like things that never were;
in losing self all sins are lost as well. Henceforth the free
Divine Life alone acts through what men in ignorance will
still call “him.”

Verse 67. The Gita adds a warning against communicating this
Mystery to anyone who is undisciplined, without love, without
desire to serve ( askuskrushu ), or who speaks evil of the Teacher.
This prohibition is not prompted by any spirit of exclusiveness
but by the desire to prevent harm being done. The above-
mentioned types would assuredly fail to understand its inner
meaning and, grasping at the letter of such promises as that
in verse 66, would harm themselves and others. 2

The next two verses make this entirely clear,'for they set
forth the praises of those who impart the mystic teaching to
such as are ready to profit by it. They are the renouncers
of personal salvation to whom the chapter title refers, they
who out of transcendent devotion (para bhakti , cf. verse 54)
set aside their bliss till every living being can share it with
Verse 69. them. It is for this great Sacrifice that Krishna says of them,
that none either are or ever will be dearer to Him. They
are the calm Great Ones 8 spoken of by Shankaracharya who,
having themselves crossed over the Ocean, devote themselves
unselfishly to helping others to cross.

Little remains to say. 4 The Path, the Goal and the Great

1 What is said here of Sri Krishna is true also of the relationship with the
human Guru when rightly understood.

2 The use of the Gita to justify bomb outrages and the futilities of senti-
mental pietism are instances of what can result from a disregard of this
prohibition.

2 Shanta Mahantah — i.e. those who* though realising their nature as
the Shanta Atman, beyond all manifestation* yet remain on the level of the
Mahat Atmany the cosmic Ideation or Divine Wisdom (Viveka Chuddmam,
verse 39).

* The reference to the results of simply hearing with faith (verse 71)
must be understood in the light of what has been said about faith in the
previous chapter.

RENUNCIATION OF LIBERATION 191

Sacrifice have been set forth and understood and the Soul
breaks out in triumphant ecstasy:

“Destroyed is my delusion. Memory has been regained. Verse 73,
By Thy grace, O Unfallen One, my doubts are gone. Thy
bidding I will do.”

Once before, 1 after the first inner perception of the spiritual
Pervading Powers, Arjuna has proclaimed the vanishing of
his delusion, but now the further steps have been accom-
plished. He is established in Reality; he has regained his
Memory of That Eternal One from which he came, to which
he now returns. All Knowledge now is his and, with the
alternatives before him of eternal changeless bliss or of un-
wearying service of his suffering brother-men, he chooses the
latter and cries out to the Unfallen Changeless Being that he
will do His bidding and will serve Him to the end.

Thus ends the dialogue between the Soul and its eternal
Source. It is the Soul itself that is enlightened, but the
illumination is brought down to the level of the ordinary waking
personality by the mediation of Sanjaya, the link between Verses
the two. “Remembering, remembering” the glories of that 76 ~ 78 ‘
Divine Enlightenment, he floods the heart with joy and
proclaims the undying truth, that when the human Soul is
united with the Divine, victory, welfare and righteousness are
eternally assured.

1 Gita, xi, 1.

APPENDICES

15

APPENDIX A

NOTE ON THE TEEMS CONSCIOUSNESS AND FORM

The two terms, consciousness and form, are in constant use
throughout this book and an understanding of the sense in
which they are used is of vital importance.

If any experience is analysed — say, for example, the visual
experience of a blue disc — two aspects can be distinguished.
There is the content, a round blue shape in this instance, and
the “awareness” of that shape. The content is what I have
termed form and the awareness consciousness.

It must be carefully noted that form does not here mean
outline, but filled-in content-shape, and the term must also
be understood in the same way of other elements of experience,
sensuous or non-sensuous. For instance we have the “form”
of a sound, a taste, a feeling, or a thought, which must be
understood by analogy with the forms of visual experience.

In contrast with these forms, which are all different both
as regards individual forms within one class and as regards
different classes of forms, there is the awareness or con-
sciousness, which is of the same sort throughout.

There are many drawbacks to the use of the word con-
sciousness. In the first place it is used in half a dozen different
senses by philosophers and psychologists, and in the second
place it suffers from the great drawback that it has no active
verbal form. One can say “to be conscious of” but not
“to conscious” such-and-such an object. There is the word
“awareness” and the dubious coined derivative “awaring,”
which I have also occasionally pressed into service, but it is
ug ly and not very current. The best term is one that was
coined by E. D. Fawcett in his The World as Imagination,
Zermatt Dialogues, etc. The term in question is conscirifig—
i.e. “knowing together”— -and has as its correlative, for the
content-form, the word conscitum (plural, conscita ). I should
certainly have availed myself of these coinages but, unfortun-
ately, they are not as yet sufficiently widely current to be
generally understood and, moreover, a great deal of the book
had been written before I came across Fawcett’s writings.

195

i 9 6 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

. It should be dear from introspective meditation that all
forms are sustained in consciousness, and that, apart from
consciousness, we know nothing and can know nothing of
forms. It is in fact meaningless to talk of forms as existing
apart from consciousness . 1 The objects supposed by some
to exis t behind the forms are mere mental constructs devised
for dealing with experience in practice. No one knows them,
no one can ever know them; to believe in their existence is a
pure and quite uncalled-for act of faith.

It should not be supposed that by the forms are meant
sensations, camera pictures of reality located somewhere in
the brain. The brain itself (as an “object”) is one of the
constructs of which mention has just been made. The
usefulness of such constructs in certain realms of thought
and study is not at all denied, but they are irrelevant here.

The primary bedrock of experience is not sensations in the
eye, ear, or brain, but visual and other forms in space . All
the rest is inference and construction. Materialistic science
begins by abstracting consciousness from the forms in order
to deal with them more objectively and impersonally and then,
when analysis fails to reveal any hfe or conscious principle
in those forms, triumphantly exclaims that all is mechanism,
nowhere is there anything of a spiritual nature. Behaviourist
psychology is an example of the same procedure applied to
mental life. If you start by abstracting consciousness from
phenomena it is obviously absurd to expect to find it as a term
in your concluded analysis. For this reason no one should
feel disappointed that science (as nowadays practised) does
not know anything of the existence of “the soul.” It is the
old story of looking for one’s spectacles when they are on
one’s nose.

To go into this subject fully would require a volume and
not an appendix. Here I am only concerned to indicate the
sense in which the word consciousness has been used in this
book. It follows from that sense that the modem term
“ unconscious ” mind can have no meaning. There is not
the shghtest reason for supposing that anything whatever,
physical or mental, exists or can exist save as the content of

1 This position must by no means be confused with that of subjective
idealism. The consciousness spoken of is not “your” or “my” conscious^
ness, in fact “you” and “I” exist only as constellated form-sequences
brought to foci in that consciousness which, in itself, is neither human
nor individualised, but a pervading Light,

APPENDICES

197

consciousness. Hence we can talk of a sub- or a super-
conscious mind, meaning by those terms mental processes
that are sustained in consciousness below or above the level
at which it is normally focused, processes which are not
attended to by normal consciousness, but we cannot talk of
an unconscious mind, for that would have no meaning.

It only remains to add that the Sanskrit term for what is
here termed consciousness is chit, as distinct from cliitta,
which means the mind. The Buddhists, on the other
hand, speak of Vijhdna (Pali — vinnana ). Thus consciousness
ill umin ating visual forms is called caksuk-vijmna (eye-
consciousness), illuminating thoughts, mam-vipiana (mind-
consciousness), and so on. Beyond the sense and mind
consciousness (at least in Mahdydna systems) is the Alaya
Vijnana or store-consciousness, corresponding to the Mahat
Atman as used in this book. The Mahavanists also use the
word chitta to do duty for consciousness as well as lor mind.
For instance they will speak indifferently of chitta-matra or
Vijhdna-mdtra, meaning by both terms pure consciousness.

APPENDIX B

NOTE ON THE WORDS SOUL AND MATTER

The word Soul as used in this book does not refer to a separate
entity within the body but to the inner centre of the linked
streams of experience that make up a personality. That
centre is a focus in consciousness, not any individual’s con-
sciousness but the all-pervading sea of Light. As such it is
not a separate “entity” any more than the focus to which
light is brought by a lens is a separate entity. That focus
primarily exists on the level of the higher or pure manas , but
a projection of it is to be found functioning as the desire-mind
or personality lower down. It is that lower or projected centre
that is the core of the empirical personality. It does not exist
in any objective way, but comes into being as a centre to which
our experiences are referred. That is why a very young
child has no sense of self and that, too, is why, when in certain
pathological states the experience-content gets organised into
two instead of one constellation, we get two selves instead of
one — the so-called dissociation of a personality.

As for the higher Self, the true ego, that too is not a “thing-
in-itself.” It is however a focus which lasts through ages.
Itself not born, it yet emanates that projection which forms the
self of any given life. Its own content when outward-looking
is the accumulated fruit of the experiences gained by its
repeated projections, and when inward-looking the universal
knowledge of the buddhi.

In a still higher sense the Self is the One Life in all ( Mahat
Atman), seeing through all the foci but beyond them all. In
the highest sense it is the transcendental Self, the Shanta
Atman. Beyond that is the Parabrahman, no self at all.

It will be seen that Soul and Self have been used syn-
onymously. When the former word has been used it was
because the context needed a warmer emotional tone than is
conveyed by the more philosophic term Self. In particular
it refers to what has been termed the true Ego, backed by the
feeling-knowledge of the buddhi.

198

APPENDICES 199

The Sanskrit word Atman , of which self is a translation,
is used in just the same way of any level with which the Light
is identified. Sometimes the body, more often the mind
{e.g. Gita, vi, 5), sometimes the buddhi (e.g. jnandtman in
Kathopanishad ), sometimes the One Life, the Cosmic Ideation
(Mahat Atman), sometimes the transcendental Self (Skdnta
Atman), sometimes, though only symbolically, the Para-
brahman ( Paramatman — e.g. Gita, xv, 18). In this last case
the term should be taken as signifying That which is the
reality behind all self. It will be seen from this that Atman
is not a thing, but a Light or, as was perhaps the earliest
meaning of the word, a “breath.”

Throughout this book self with a small “s” signifies the
empirical or personal self, Seif with a capital the true ego or
higher Self. Qualifying adjectives are added to denote the
still higher levels.

Turning now to the word “matter” it is necessary to point
out that it is not used in the sense of “stuff” existing in its
own right. It has been shown in the course of the book that
there is not the slightest reason to suppose that any such
“stuff” exists at all. It is a mental construction and under the
eye of modern physics it is evaporating more and more with
each new advance. There is nothing beyond or behind the
sense-data — except the Brahman, which, if the word must
be used, is the only “stuff” that exists. The billiard-ball
atoms of the nineteenth century, the miniature solar systems
of the early twentieth and the waves of probability of the
present are all alike pure mental constructions evolved for the
explaining, measuring and predicting of experience, and have
no more reality in themselves than mathematical concepts
such as the square root of minus one. _ . .

Where the word matter has been used in this book it is in
the sense of objectivity, of content standing over against the
Light, of self-projection into that content and of the Self-loss,
separation and pluralism that result. The descent of the
Soul into Matter signifies the going-out of the Light into its
content, its self-identification with it and the consequent
increasing objectification of the latter. This should be borne
in mind throughout.

APPENDIX G

NOTE ON THE FOUR STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Throughout Hindu philosophic and symbolic writings
frequent references are made to the three states of Conscious-
ness, Jagrat , Szoapna , Sushupti, and the fourth transcendent
state known simply as Turiya , or “the fourth.” Translated
as the waking, dreaming and deep-sleep states, this scheme
seems to many merely a rather naive attempt at classification
of psychological states. To those who have more vision it is
a key to unlock many locks. The “dreaming” and “deep-
sleep” states are not to be identified with the states commonly
known as such. Rather, the latter are species of those genera.
Th & Jagrat or “waking” state is that of ordinary consciousness,
a state in which the Consciousness illuminates the field of
outer sense-data. It is the world of outer objectivity, or,
more stricdy speaking, it is the world in which the division of
subject and object is most clearly apparent. In this state
we think of the “world” as something quite outside us and
quite independent of ourselves. It would exist, we feel, even
if we did not. That is why The Voice of the Silence refers to
it as the Hall of Ignorance.

The second or Swapna (literally, dreaming) state is felt as
an inner world. Its content is made up of the data of the
inner senses and of the thoughts, and it reaches up as high as
the mams. Though the distinction between subject and object
is not felt to be so hard and fast it still persists, as, of course,
does the illusion of plurality. In the Jagrat state the world
was felt as a hostile or at best neutral environment in which we
are arbitrarily plunged, but in the Swapna state it is felt even
by us that the content of that world is a projection of our own
psyche. However unpleasant we may find the environment
of a dream, or the universe of thought in which we are absorbed,
we recognise (at least afterwards) that it was our own creation.
Its unpleasantness is due to something unpleasant in us. This
is the world of inner, often hidden, desire and of psychic forms.
The Voice of the Silence calls it the Hall of Learning because

200

APPENDICES 201

it is through experience of that state that we learn, first, that
we are not the physical body, and secondly, that environment
is self-created and is an outer manifestation of our own past
acts and thoughts (karma). “What is to be learnt from it is
that all that happens to us is the inevitable result of what we
have thought, and in that plastic world this can be readily
seen and grasped. If one’s thoughts have been harmonious
our Swapna environment, whether in day-time phantasy, at
night, or after death, will be a pleasant one (cf. the heaven
worlds of mythology and spiritualism), which may tempt us
to linger enjoying vivid pleasures. How often for example
would we not like to prolong those vivid dreams in which,
though we have a body, it no longer clogs us with its inert
weight and we fly and do all manner of pleasant things with
an unheard-of ease?”

Nevertheless “under every flower a serpent is coiled,” the
serpent of desire. However pleasant it may be, this world
is still a world of desire and plurality, and, as the Upanishad
says, “As long as there is plurality there is fear.”

The disciple must therefore pass on to the third state, the
state of Suskupti (dreamless sleep), termed in The Voice of
the Silence the Hall of Wisdom. This is the level of buddhi-
mahat and is termed the hall of wisdom because in it plurality,
the great illusion, has vanished: all is one living Unity of
Light. It may be wondered why the dark state of dreamless
sleep should be taken to typify this state if it is One of Light.
The reason for the darkness of the state as known to most
men is that they are centred in the personality (lower mams)
and cannot rise to their own true Selves, still less to union
with the buddhi above. The result is that when the pluralistic
vision of the lower self is transcended nothing is left except a
dark blank, retaining of the true Sushupti nothing except its
unity.

As Gaudapada puts it in his Karikas on the Mandukya
Upanishad (iii, 34 and 35): “The condition of the mind of
a wise man in samadhi (trance on the Sushupti- level), free from
imaginations, is to be distinguished from that of dreamless
sleep for it is not the same. In sleep the mind is simply
overpowered, but not so in samadhi , for then it is the fearless
Brahman blazing with the light of Knowledge.” And Shan-
kara comments: “For the condition of the mind immersed,
during sleep, in the torpidity of ignorance (< avidya—i.e . the

202 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

idea of plurality), and still full of the potential impressions of
the cause of experience, is quite distinct from that absolutely
independent and perfectly tranquil condition of samadhi, all
light.”

The above explains why it is that the Upanishads declare
that the Soul goes to the Brahman every night in sleep and also
why modern readers are apt to feel that, if that is so, going
to Brahman can be no very great affair! Again, when the
Upanishads declare that the waking feeling “happy I slept”
is the memory of the bliss of Brahman (more exactly of the
Mahat Atman) they are not referring to a physical feeling of
refreshment after sleep but to a phenomenon well known on
the Path. In early stages it will happen that, though the
personal consciousness of the disciple is not able to unite
properly with the buddhi, yet Sushupti experience is able to be
reflected in his personal mind, and he may be aware of it in
his waking consciousness either as a memory of a peculiarly
vivid dream felt to be charged with spiritual meaning or
simply as a feeling of inner bliss felt equally to be of intense
significance, though of what it was about he has no knowledge.

The Tunya (fourth) state is that of sheer transcendence,
the unmanifested Consciousness of the Shanta Atman. It is
the Goal and is best left in silence.

It may be added that the Mdndukya Upanishad, which deals
with these four states, though in a very compressed maimer,
states that the Mantra Om can be considered as split up into
the three elements. A, U and M. Of these A signifies the
Jagrat state, U the Swapna and M the Sushupti , while the Om,
taken as a single unity, stands for the “Fourth.”

The repeated counsel to meditate on the Om has no reference
to setting up “vibrations” in the subtle body but to raising
the consciousness through the three stages into the Fourth.
See also the verses from Mundaka Upanishad quoted on the
fly-leaf of this book.

APPENDIX D

NOTE ON AVATARAS

As chapter four (particularly verses 6 to 8) is the main authority
for the doctrine of Avataras or Divine Incarnations it is perhaps
desirable to say a word or two on the subject. According to
orthodox tradition certain times in the history of the world
have been marked by direct Divine “descents.” Besides less-
known ones, Rama Chandra, Sri Krishna, Buddha and, by the
more liberal-minded, Christ are usually considered as such.
There is a well-known list of ten which is generally accepted,
though the Bhdgawata has a less widely known list of twenty-
four. The doctrine is accepted as a relative truth by the
Advaita Vedanta school, though in strict accuracy it can find
little place in Advaita thought, for which all forms and all
births are due to ignorance. In reality the teaching belongs
to the Bhdgawata (Vaishnava) tradition, though accepted by all
others with the exception of one or two “protestant” modern
sects.

The Avataras, scholastically defined as descents from
beyond the five-fold universe into it ( aprapanchat prapanche
avatima ), are of many sorts. There are manifestations under-
taken for a special purpose, such as that of Nrisingha, the so-
called Man-Lion, and descents in animal forms, probably
symbolic, such as the Matsya or Fish Avatdra, perhaps
connected with the Chaldsean Oannes, the Man-Fish who
swam up the Persian Gulf to teach wisdom to the Sumerian
dwellers in Eridu. Apart from these, there are the “descents”
in human form of whom the most famous are Sri Rama
Chandra and Sri Krishna. They are classified as partial
Descents ( anshavatara ) and full, in the sense that while the
former manifest only a particular selection of the Divine
Powers, the latter manifest them in their fulness.

It is universally held that Sri Krishna is such a Full
Avatdra, and indeed, some schools, following the Bhdgawata
tradition, go further and affirm that He is the actual source
or root of all the other Avataras. Be that as it may, tradition

203

204 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

represents Him as manifesting in their fulness the Divine
Wisdom and Power from the very moment of His birth.

In addition to these types there are many others of which
perhaps the only one we need notice is the Avesha Avatar a, an
overshadowing of some highly evolved human soul for a
particular purpose. Vyasa, the classifier of the Vedas and
revealer of so many other Scriptures, including the Mahab-
harata itself (and of course the Gita), is sometimes held to be
an instance of this type of Avatara in which the Divine
Consciousness overshadows and takes possession of a human
soul.

-Such is the account given by tradition and accepted by
Hindus in general. A view has sometimes been put forward
that all Avataras are really of this last class, and that, in all
cases, the actual avatar ana is really the answering “descent”
called out, as it were, from the Eternal by the aspiration of an
“ascending” human soul, and manifesting thereafter through
him, so that “he” is no more a man as we understand the term
but a vehicle for the manifestation of the Supreme.’

Such a view certainly seems to fit the case of the Buddha,
who remembered all His past lives of human striving, and,
as a matter of fact, it differs only in terminology from the views
of some Mahayanist Buddhist schools.

Nevertheless it is certainly not the Hindu view that all
Avataras are of this type and, indeed, it would be strenuously
denied. In particular, it is definitely held that Sri Krishna is
a direct manifestation of the Supreme in a form apparently,
but only apparently, human. Sri Madhyacharya as well as
Sri Chaitanya Deva, indeed, taught that all avatarik Forms
are actually eternal ( nitya ) and merely manifest on this plane
from time to time, a view which, whatever may be its difficulties
from the viewpoint of ordinary commonsense, has certainly
a very important mystical basis.

'At any rate, it clearly betrays a very limited conception of
the Divine nature to deny a priori the possibility of His (or Its)
manifesting when, where and how He pleases in a universe of
which the entire structure on all levels constitutes a “descent”
of His various powers. Surely the days are past when the
“eternal laws of nature” could be held to interpose any
obstacle in the way of the Divine Freedom.'*

APPENDIX E

DIAGRAM OF THE COSMIC LEVELS

o °

UN MANIFESTED *

2 0 O'

MANIFESTED

UNIVERSE

Number o. Parabrahman Purushottama, beyond all levels.

„ i. Shdnta Atman , Pure Consciousness, Unmani-
fested Self, Adhydtma, Swabhava.

„ 2. Mula-prakfiti ', the Matrix, Unmanifested Object,

Avyakta.

„ 3. Mahat Atman , Mahat , the One Life, Great Self,

adhi-daivata. Cosmic Ideation, Divine Wisdom.

„ 4. Buddhi , knowledge of Number 3, also the faculty

by which that knowledge is acquired, jnana

atman.

„ 5. Manas , higher Mind, Ahankara , Individual Egos,

the “point of view,” /fca, Adhiyajna,

205

20 6 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

Number 6. Lower manas — i.e. manas united with the desire-
nature; personalities; also the Indriyas (senses)
and their inner objects 3 Adhibhuta.

,, 7. The outer world, objects of the outer senses,

Adhibhuta.

Numbers 0 and 1 are often taken as one, and so are Numbers
3 and 4. Number 6 is sometimes split into two when the
lower manas is differentiated from the pure desire-nature.
Where the five levels of consciousness are spoken of Number 2
is omitted as on the same level as Number 1, and Numbers 6
and 7 are taken together, as both are brought to a focus in the
lower mind. It will be noticed that, while Number 7 is purely
objective, Number 6 has two aspects, subjective and objective.
It is the level of the desire-mind and also of the objects of the
inner senses.

APPENDIX F

NOTE ON THE PROCESS OF COSMIC MANIFESTATION

The manifestation of a Cosmos depends on the polarisation of
the One, the Parabrahman , into the transcendental Subject,
the Shanta Atman, and the transcendental Object, the Miila-
prakriti. While it would be obviously absurd to attempt to
explain how that polarisation actually occurs, it may be useful
to make a few suggestions as to how we may conceive it as
occurring.

Let us take as a basis the sublime Creation Hymn of the
Rig-Veda (x, 129, Griffith’s translation):

(1) “There was not non-existent nor existent;

there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.

What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter?

Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?”

“Existent” (sat) must here be taken in the sense of ex-istent,
something which “stands forth.” Note that while air (the
moving world of manas and plurality) and sky (the calmly
shining Cosmic Ideation, Mahat) are negated, that which
covered in (the all-enfolding consciousness or Shanta Atman )
and the depth of water (the Matrix or Mula-prakriti) are not
negated but questioned. It cannot be said of them that they
are not, though neither can it be said that they are.

(2) “Death was not there, nor was there aught immortal:

No sign was there, the day’s and night’s divider.

That One Thing, breathless, breathed by Its own nature:

Apart from It was nothing whatsoever.”

The mortal personalities and the immortal Egos had not
come into existence nor was there any division between the
dark or lower half of the Cosmos and the light upper half. The
One however was not in a static death-like state, but was
characterised by a rhythmic process which will be discussed
later.

(3) “Darkness there was: at first concealed in Darkness

the All was indiscriminated chaos.

All that existed then was void and formless:

by the great power of warmth ( tapas ) was bom that Unit.”
207

208 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

So far beyond all thought or imagination is that One that It
is only to be conceived as Darkness. In that Darkness was
buried the potentiality of all existence. By the power of tapas
or self-limitation arose the Unit, the Shanta Atman , or One
Consciousness.

(4) “Thereafter rose Desire ( kama ) in the beginning,

Desire the primal seed and germ of Manas.

Sages who searched with their heart’s thought discovered
the existent’s kinship in the non-existent.”

With the arising of the unitary Consciousness the other aspect
of the One becomes the Object (Mula-prakriti) and, attracting
the attention of the Consciousness, causes an outpouring of
energy which is here termed Desire and which is the root of
the individual Self ( manas ). The second half of the verse tells
how, by searching within the heart (manas), the original
undifferentiated Reality is to be found.

( 5 ) “Transversely was their severing line extended:

What was above it then, and what below it?

There were begetters, there were mighty forces,
free action here and energy up yonder.”

Below these two is a great gulf, the “abyss” of the Kdbala,
which divides the manifested below from the unmanifested
above. Above was the massive energy and “here” (i.e. below)
the begetters, mighty forces of “desire” spiralling downwards
and referred to in Gita (xi, 15) as the Divine Serpents.

(6) “Who verily knows and who can here declare it,

whence it was bom and whence comes this creation?

The Gods are later than this world’s production.

Who knows then whence it first came into being?”

The actual first impulse to creation is for ever hidden in the
Darkness, and that is why the Buddha kept silent on the
subject and refused to go beyond Desire. The Gods who are
the levels of manifested consciousness came into being later.
In other words. Consciousness cannot penetrate to its own root.

(7) “He, the first origin of this creation,

whether He formed it all or did not form it.

Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven.

He verily knows it, or perhaps He knows not.”

The proximate origin of the creation is He, the Shanta
Atman, the One Consciousness, whose eye controls this world

APPENDICES

209

in highest heaven , all the forms being drawn forth and sustained
by and in that Consciousness. The ultimate root is, however,
even beyond that Atman. Not even for the Shanta Atman
can It be an object of knowledge, for to know It is to merge
in It and in that merging the separate Knower comes to an
end.

One point remains to be noticed. The second verse states
that in the One (even during the period of pralaya ) there is a
certain rhythmic process symbolised as breathing. Within
the One exist in potentiality the two poles of Subject and
Object (which, it will be remembered, were not entirely negated
in verse one). We may conceive that “breath” as a rhythmic
alternation of polarity between these two. When the pendulum
swing has attained a certain amplitude we may conceive some-
thing happening analogous to what takes place in ourselves
when mental processes that have been going on below the
threshold of consciousness rise into the light and emerge as
“I am experiencing such-and-such.”

Incidentally it may be mentioned that some accounts treat
the emergence of the Mula-prakriti as prior to that of the
Shanta Atman. The contradiction is not so much real as
apparent. It must be remembered that we are in a region
beyond time as we know it and the stages are more logical than
temporal ones. When the emergence of the Mula-prakriti
is taken as prior it is because, from one point of view, con-
sciousness manifests only when there is something there to be
conscious of, just as light becomes manifest only when there is
something to be illuminated. The two (Subject and Object)
are two poles of the One Reality and priority in manifestation
is largely a matter of viewpoint.

As an illustration of the identity of the inner teaching in the
different schools, the following quotation from the Zohar may
be of interest. The identifications in brackets are somewhat
tentative as I have not made an adequate study of the Kabalistic
version. The translation is Sperling and Simon’s:

“What is within the Thought [the Shanta Atman ] none can
conceive, much less can one know the En Soph [the Brahman],
of which no trace can be found and to which thought cannot
reach by any means. But from the midst of the unpenetrable
mystery, from the first descent of the En Soph , there glimmers
a faint undiscemible light like the point of a needle, the hidden
recess of thought [the Shanta Atman], which even yet is not

16

210 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

knowable until there extends from it a light in a place where
there is some imprint of letters [the Mula-prakriti], and from
which they all issue. First of all is Aleph [the Mahat Atman],
the beginning and end of all grades [the levels], that on which
all the grades are imprinted and which yet is always called
‘one’ to show that though the Godhead contains many forms
[the Cosmic Form] it is still one. This is the letter on which
depend both the lower and the upper entities” ( Zohar , i, 2ia).

APPENDIX G

NOTE ON THE AFTER-DEATH PATHS

Popular Hinduism has sometimes taken the “times” of death
mentioned in chapter eight, verses 23-26, literally, and the
Mahabharata relates how Bhishma held off death for several
months in order that the sun might enter on the Northern
Path — i.e. till the winter solstice was over. Taken literally,
however, contradictions are involved. For instance, what
would happen to a man dying in the light fortnight of the
month of November — i.e. during the Southern Path?
Shankaracharya emphatically affirms that the Path taken after
death depends on jnana alone and that the time of death makes
no difference whatever. He goes on to say that the various
“times” mentioned are symbols for the Gods who are the
stages on the Path, a statement which is perfectly compre-
hensible if we remember that the “Gods” mean the levels
of consciousness.

The two Paths are in fact the paths taken, the one by the
man who identifies himself with the consciousness, the Light
of the Atman , and the other by him who identifies himself
with the passing forms that are illumined by that Light.

On the first path the Yogi passes from the consciousness
on the desire-level (withdrawn from the objects of desire and
symbolised by fire and light — these two are given as one in
the Upanishadie version) to the “day” of the higher mind
(which persists as a focus throughout the Cosmic Day unless,
indeed, destroyed by passing Beyond); thence he passes to
the bright fortnight, the waxing moon of buddhi , and to the
sunli ght of eternal summer (in the Mahat Atman).

On the other path the traveller is absorbed in the “smoky”
contents of the desire-consciousness and so, failing to see the
“day” of the higher manas, is lost in the “night.” It goes
without saying that for him the moon of buddhi wanes (the
dark fortnight) and that, though the Light of the Great Atman
is within him all the time, he sees it not and is left in the
darkness of an almost Arctic winter (the six months of the

2XX

212 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

sun’s southern path) and sees only the “moonlight” — here
not the Light of “ buddhi ” but the Light that is entangled in
the moon of forms (see Prashna Upanishad, i, 5).

Perhaps it should be added that these two paths are in the
nature of “limiting paths,” they represent the two extremes.
The ordinary man will find himself somewhere between the
two. After death he will find himself in his desire-body, a
subtle body resembling the body in which even now he finds
himself in dreams, a body which can experience pleasure
and pain but which cannot be injured. All in him that is
of real worth will then ascend to the higher, though in many
cases it will not be conscious of that Ego but will live in it
much as a dissociated personality may live within the psyche
of a man on the earth. That is called in the symbolism “going
to the night” instead of to the “day” of the Ego.

There within the Ego it will experience subjectively the
fruits of its good deeds (which the Gita terms enjoying the
wide heaven world), culminating in a flash of expanded con-
sciousness as it unites with the Ego. In the ordinary man
this flash of union is the immediate precursor of the raying-
out of energy that will form the new personality and, inheriting
the karma of its predecessor, will be reborn on earth.

It is thus seen that there is a gap between the personalities
of two successive incarnations, which explains the lack of
memory of the former life. The few cases of memory of
a former life that occur sporadically (a well-authenticated
case occurred in Delhi a few years ago) are usually ones
where, through some strong desire, the ascent to the Ego
has not been made and rebirth takes place almost at once, the
subtle desire-body remaining unchanged.

In the Tibetan Book of the Dead , edited by Dr Evans Wentz,
it is taught that: “After death thy own consciousness, shining,
void, and inseparable from the Great Body of Radiance, hath
no birth and death and is the immutable Light — Buddha
Amitabha .” It is stated that the mentality of the dying
person momentarily enjoys a condition of balance which is
compared to that of a needle balanced laterally on a thread.
But it is added that, owing to unfamiliarity with such a state,
the consciousness principle of the average human being lacks
the power to function in it; “karmik propensities becloud the
consciousness principle with thoughts of personality . . .
and, losing equilibrium, it falls away from the Clear Light”

APPENDICES

213

(Tibetan Book of the Dead , pp. 96 and 97). It is after this
that the visions, pleasant or terrifying, of the after-death state
commence.

Students of the Buddhist tradition may find that the above
explanation throws light on the well-known difficulty in
stating from a Buddhist viewpoint what it is that passes from
one life to another. Obviously the personal self cannot
transmigrate, since a new one is projected for each life. On
the other hand, the higher Self is not really born at all and so
cannot be said to transmigrate either. Consciousness cannot
be said to transmigrate as it is all-pervading and motionless.
All that can be said to pass over from one life to the next is
karma , and this, at least by some, has been said to be the
Buddhist answer. I am quite aware that most Buddhists
would not accept the idea of the existence of the higher Self.
This is not the place to go into the reasons for such non-
acceptance but it should be pointed out that what the Buddhists
object to is a permanent self-entity, while what has in this
book been termed the higher Self is not a permanent entity,
not, in fact, an entity at all.

The same teaching of the two paths occurs in the Orphic
tradition. Speaking of the mystic Y and the path which leads
to filth and oblivion the Orphic poem The Descent into Hades
reads:

“Thou shalt find to the left of the House of Hades a well-
spring and by the side thereof a white cypress. To this well
approach not near. But thou shalt find another cypress
and by this the Lake of Memory, cold water flowing forth.
Guardians will be before it. Say unto them: ‘I am a child
of Earth and Starry Heaven, but my Race is of Heaven alone.
This ye know yourselves. Quickly give me the cold water
flowing forth from Memory’s Lake.’ And of themselves will
they give thee to drink from the holy well-spring and thereafter
shalt thou have lordship together with the rest of the heroes”
(from Eisler’s Orpheus the Fisher ).

APPENDIX H

NOTE ON THE FIVE ELEMENTS

It must not be supposed that the Mahdbhutas , the so-called
five elements, are elements of matter in the sense of the
chemist’s elements (though even the latter have now vanished
as ultimate entities). Indian philosophic thought is concerned
with the analysis of experience, not of “matter.” The Hindu
view has been excellently stated by Pandit J. C. Chatterji (on
page 40 of his India’s Outlook on Life ) as follows: —

“These are collectively the five Bhutas and are produced
by the five sensation-generals called Bhuta-mdtrds (later
Tanmatras ), inasmuch as they have no other meaning except
the inferred, i.e. the imagined origins or concomitants, moving
or stationary, of the sensations of Odour, Flavour [“taste”
would be better here. — K.P.], Colour, Temperature and
Sound as they are actually perceived by means of the senses
operating in the physical body, i.e. as varieties in these sensa-
tions as distinguished from the general ones. And they are
produced in the following manner.”

The author then goes on to explain in a manner which,
whether altogether sound or not, is very interesting, the details
of their arising. In the end he sums up as follows: —

“Thus from the experience of variation in the five general
objects of perception there are produced also the five important
factors of the physical, namely Ethereal Space ( Akdsha ) and
the four others technically and symbolically called Air (Vayu),
Fire ( [Agni ), Water (Ap) and Earth (Prithivi) — ingredients
collectively designated in Sanskrit by the technical name of
Bhutas , i.e. the ever-passing Have-beens (never the ares)
which are but Ghosts ( Bhuta also means ‘ghost’) of the Real,
the one ever-abiding Being that is the inmost self of them all,
as of the universe.”

Buddhist tradition is also quite explicit. The Abhidharma
Kosha (i, 13) explains that the “earth” of common speech
merely means a coloured shape, while the philosophical earth,
water, fire and air signify forces of firmness (in some accounts

214

APPENDICES 215

repulsion or that which causes extension), cohesion, maturing
(energising?) and flowing-forth or motion. (Note that even
the earth of common speech is held quite correctly to be a
“coloured shape” and not a solid substance.)

Some may detect a slight flavour of artificiality (almost of
apologetic) in this account of the five elements. Perhaps they
are not entirely wrong. In still older times, older than what
we call philosophic thought, the five elements were earth,
water, etc., in their natural sense, the sense we still use in
such a phrase as “exposed to the elements.” But, at the
same time , they were used in mystical teaching as symbols of
various levels of being. Later the symbolic reference to
the higher levels was forgotten by teachers who had no
knowledge of them and they came to be regarded as just
physical-plane realities. The list of five remained, however,
sacrosanct and so there was a need for a reinterpretation on
philosophical lines. Hence the flavour of artificiality adhering
to such interpretations. The Gita, a work which preserves
the older mystical symbolisms as well as the newer philosophic
thought, uses the elements sometimes in one sense, sometimes
in the other. When we read of the earth and fire in chapter
fifteen (verses 13 and 14) it is in the symbolic sense that they
are used, but in such a verse as Gita, xiii, 5, the sense is
“philosophic,” and the term should be understood along the
general lines set forth above.

In any case, as Chatterji has observed, the five Mahabhutas
are inferred, not perceived, and the real elements are the
elements of sensation (what we should nowadays term sense-
data), smell, taste, colour-shape, touch and sound. Even
these are elements only in the psychological sense. They
represent the elements into which our experience can be
analysed and, even if considered “atomic,” the atoms must
be regarded as psychological irreducibles and not as “material”
atoms.

GLOSSARY

Adityas: A class of Vedic Gods, six, seven, or eight in number,
the sons of Aditi, the Infinite. They are golden, many-
eyed, unwinking, sleepless, and they support all that moves
or is stationary (Macdonnell’s Vedic Mythology). They
represent the levels of consciousness. Later they became
twelve in number and were affiliated to the twelve months.

Akasha: Space — rather in the sense of a continuum than of
mere emptiness. We read also of chid-akasha, the space
of consciousness.

Ananda: Bliss as distinguished from mere hedonic pleasure.

Asura: Originally a title of the great Gods, Indra, Agni and
Varuna , but later, by a different etymology, it came to
mean not-divine, and so a Titanic enemy of the Gods.
The Rig-Veda has both meanings, the later Atharva-Veda
only the latter. Used in the Gita of the “dark” path
of pravritti, q.v.

Atman: Originally (perhaps) meaning breath, the word came
to stand for self, or anything that may be considered self,
from the body up to the highest Reality. Particularly it
signifies the higher Self (jivatman), the manifested cosmic
Self ( Mahat Atman ) and the Unmanifested transcendent
Self ( Shanta Atman). It is the consciousness, particularly
on the higher levels.

Avyakta: The Unmanifested, especially Mula-prakriti , but
also ( e.g . Gita, viii, 20) the Parabrahman and the Shanta

Atman.

Bhakti: Service motivated by love and worship. Also used for
the emotions of love or worship themselves.

Bhtshma: A hero in the Mahabharata , the adviser of King
Dhritarashtra and a devotee of Krishna though fighting
on the other side. In the Gita he stands for blind faith.

Bodhisattva: In Mahayana Buddhism one who treads the Path
not for his own salvation alone but for the salvation of all.
In the highest sense it is used of one who reaches the
Goal, but instead of entering the transcendent Nirvana

217

218 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

preserves an apparent individuality in order to help others
on the Path.

Brahmacharya : Originally the study of the sacred tradition
under a guru. Later, since the period of study, as con-
trasted with the following period of life as a householder,
was characterised by sexual continence, the word came
to have this restricted sense of chastity. Whence Brahma-
chan, one who practises sexual restraint. In the Gita the
emphasis is an inner one.

Brahman: The name given in the Upanishads for the Supreme
Reality. Especially used of the Parabrahman but also of
the Shanta Atman and sometimes for the Mula-prakriti
(e.g. Gita, xiv, 3). Discussion of the etymology would take
us too far afield, but it may be taken as the Greatness
(brih). It must not be confused with Brahma, the four-
headed God, who symbolises the creative Power of desire,
nor with Brahman, a member of the priestly caste, nor
Brahmana, a class of scriptures.

Buddhi: An impersonal spiritual faculty giving knowledge of
the Cosmic Unity. Also used of the knowledge itself.
See Appendix E. It is also the seat of such higher
emotions as love. In a lower sense it is used for the
purely intellectual aspect of our empirical personalities.

Daivi: Bright, the adjective from Deva, a shining power or
“God.” Used in Gita xvi of the path of nivritti, q.v.

Dehi: Literally, the dweller in the body; more exactly, the
consciousness focused therein.

Dharma: A difficult word to translate and one having many
meanings. Leaving aside meanings which do not occur
in the Gita we may take it as the Cosmic Order. Micro-
cosmically it is the law or principle which governs the
development of the individual. Secondly, it can be
rendered as duty. Dharma and karma were the two
aspects into which the Vedic rita (the Cosmic Order) was
split up.

Dhxitarashtra: The blind king of the Kauravas — see Pro-
legomena, p. xix; literally, “he who has seized the
kingdom.”

Drona: A Brahman who lived as a Kshattriya and was the
teacher of military arts to both Kauravas and Pandavas.
In the Gita he stands for the power of ancient tradition,
which has to be slain.

GLOSSARY

219

Duryodhana: Eldest son of Dhritarashtra: literally, “he who
is hard to overcome,” the desire-nature.

Ganga: The River Ganges, which traditionally rises from the
feet of Narayana and flows through the three worlds purify-
ing all who bathe in its water. From the inner point of
view the stream of consciousness flowing through the three
states. See Appendix C.

Guna: Literally, quality or “strand”; a technical term for
the three moments of the Mula-prakriti — namely, sattva
— reflecting power, manifesting as brightness, harmony,
purity; rajas — transmitting power, manifesting as desire,
energy, mobility; tamas — absorbing power, manifesting
as darkness, stagnation, inertia. See Chapter XIV. The
interplay of these three forces makes up all the content
of the universe whether physical or mental.

Jagrat: Literally, waking consciousness. See Appendix C.

Jiva: The individual Self. The Light focused in the higher
manas ; also called jivatman. See under Atman.

Jnana: Knowledge in all senses, from the purely worldly
knowledge to gnosis, the intuitional knowledge of the
buddhi. In the Gita usually in the latter sense.

Kapila: The original teacher of the Sankhya philosophy. In
the Gita (chapter x) he is taken as the archetypal siddha
(perfected yogi).

Karma: Literally, action. Especially actions as the elements
that manifest the aspect of the Cosmic Order that we
know as causal sequence (see also under Dharma ). Hence
also the law by which actions inevitably bear their fruit.

Kama: In reality a half-brother of the Pandavas , being the
son of their mother by the Sun-God. He was abandoned
at birth and became the friend and ally of the Kauravas.
He was actuated by intense rivalry against Arjuna and the
Kauravas placed great reliance on his prowess. In the
Gita he signifies the power which genuinely worships
ideals but places them in the physical life of the senses,
believing there to be no other. In this he may be con-
trasted with Jayadrath (Gita, xi, 34), who is a genuine
Kaurava , and who typifies the belief that the sense-life is
itself good.

Kauravas: Dhritarashtra and his sons. The Asurik tendencies
of pravritti, q.v.

Loka: Literally, “that which is seen” (lokyate). This and

220 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

higher worlds. The levels of consciousness. The lokas
are sometimes classified as three (in which case they
correspond to Jagrat, Swapna and Sushupti, see Appendix
C), sometimes as seven, corresponding to the seven levels
(see Appendix E).

Mahat: Same as Mahat Atman but with emphasis on the
objective aspect.

Mahatma: One who has identified himself completely with
the One Self ( Mahat Atman). Nowadays the term is
applied to any holy personage.

Manas: The mind in its two aspects of the true Thinker or
individual Self (higher manas) and the empirical thought-
system or personality (lower manas). In the higher sense
it is symbolised by Arjuna and is that which persists
from life to life. The two aspects are symbolised by
twin Ashwins in the Vedas.

Mam: An ancient lawgiver and king. In the Gita used in
the plural to signify the higher Selves of men as the true
lawgivers, rulers and progenitors of personalities.

Maruts: A class of Vedic warrior-gods. They are the
“heroes,” the “sons of heaven” by Vayu, the moving
power of air. They are brothers, equal in age, having one
birthplace, one mind and one abode. They have grown
on earth, in air and in heaven (the three worlds). They are
self-luminous fires, ride on chariots and strike downwards
with golden spears. See Macdonnell’s Vedic Mythology.
They represent the higher Selves. Their occasional
hostile nature is to be understood from Gita, vi, 6 .

Mula-prakriti: See Prakriti.

Nara: Literally, man; Arjuna, the higher Self.

N dr ay ana: He who dwells in the Cosmic Waters. The
supreme Self. Mythologically the Supreme God who
sleeps on the Serpent of Eternity in the Causal Ocean,
the Shanta Atman in the Mula-prakriti. From his navel
comes forth a lotus on which is born Brahma {Mahat)
and from the latter the whole universe. Identified with
Krishna.

Nirvana: The final Goal; extinction of all selfhood and
separateness. Called in the Gita Brahma-Nirvana , indi-
cating that it is not annihilation but extinction of selfhood
in the Real {Brahman).

Nivfitti: Fulfilment, completion, fruition. Technically the

GLOSSARY 221

Path of Return, the ascent from “matter” to Spirit, the
fulfilment of the Cosmic Play.

Parabrahman: The Supreme Reality. See Brahman, which is
also used in the same sense.

Prajha: Wisdom, a synonym of buddhi, especially considered
as the Wisdom content of buddhi. Illumination.

Prakriti: The source, original, or material cause of anything.
The objective moment of the Parabrahman, the great un-
manifested Matrix which is the source of all forms. Often
termed Mula (root) Prakriti to distinguish it from its
evolutes which, as material causes, are also called prakritis.

Pranava: That which sounds forth. The symbol Om. See
Appendix C.

Pravritti: Continued advance, flow, the outward-flowing
Cosmic movement, the correlative of Nivritti, q.v.

Purusha: Said to mean “he who dwells in the city” (of the
body or the universe). The pure witnessing conscious-
ness. Said in the Gita to be threefold, the perishable
purusha or individual Self, the imperishable (the Shanta
Atman) and the Purushottama (highest Purusha ), the

Parabrahman.

Rajas: See Guna.

Sahjaya: The charioteer and adviser of Dhritarashtra. Tinn-
ing of the thought-system of the lower manas towards
the true Thinker (higher manas). Conscience. See
Prolegomena.

Sankalpa: A bringing-together by the will or imagination.
Use of the personal will to formulate some end for
oneself.

Sankhya : A system of philosophy said to have been founded
by the sage Kapila. Its essence is the discrimination
between purusha and prakriti, q.v. The early forms of
Sankhya seem to have been monistic and must be distin-
guished from the later scholastic form that we have in the
Sankhya kaxikas. See Gita, ii.

Sahskdra: An impression or memory-trace. These impressions
of past acts and thoughts serve as causative forces for
bringing about further developments. A man’s knowledge
of a foreign language is not always manifested in his mind,
but it is always there in a latent form and will issue in
actual words under suitable circumstances. Such latent
knowledge is a sahskdra. There are also sahskdras in the

222 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

higher Ego and in the Cosmic Mind. The word has other
meanings not relevant here.

Satiny asi: One who has renounced the household life to wander
about as an ascetic. The sannyasi abandons all the cere-
momial observances of the brahmans, including the worship
of the sacred fires, hence he is said to be without fire and
without rites. The Gita gives an inner meaning to the
conception. See Gita, vi, I.

Sattva: One of the gunas , q.v.

Shastra: An order or command. Usually applied to the
scriptural books, also to any science or art. In the Gita it
signifies shdsak traya , the Threefold Inner Ruler see)
p. 165).

Tamas: One of the gunas, q.v.

Tapasvi: One who practises tapasya (religious austerities).
The word tapas means heat, or glow, and was used of
the severe penances performed by Hindu ascetics. In the
Gita it stands for self-discipline. It is also said that the
Cosmic process was caused by the tapas of the Para-
brahman', here tapas means self-limitation.

Tattva: A principle or element of existence, or rather of
experience. Any of the “levels” of the Cosmos.

Upadhi: “Limitation, condition (as of time or space)” (Apte’s
Dictionary ). A vehicle. That in which the consciousness
works, by which its manifestation is limited. The
thought-system of the lower manas in the upadhi of the
true Thinker or higher manas. The latter is limited and
conditioned by the former.

Vedanta: Literally, the conclusion of the Vedas — the
TJpanishads. Any system of philosophy claiming to be
based on the Upanishads, the Gita and the Brahma-Sutras.
Especially used of the monistic system formulated by
Shankaracharya (8th century A.D.?), but this system should
strictly be called advaita (non-dualist) Vedanta as there
are other claimants to the Vedantic title, such as the semi-
dualistic and dualistic systems of Ramanuja and Madhva.
In the Gita it signifies the final Knowledge, to impart
which was the purpose of the Vedas, as of all other
traditions.

Virata: A king in the Mahdbharata. During the thirteenth
year of exile, in which the Pandavas had to remain un-
recognised by anyone, they took refuge in various disguised

GLOSSARY 223

capacities in Virata’s service. Arjuna, who had disguised
himself as a woman, repaid the debt by acting as charioteer
to the young prince and routed singlehanded an army of
the Kauravas who were attempting to drive away Virata’s
cattle.

Vyasa: A Seer who is credited with having classified the
Vedas and with being the author of the Mahabharata and
all the Puranas. It was by his blessing that Sanjaya was
able to “overhear” the dialogue between Krishna and
Arjuna. One of the meanings of the word is diffusion,
extension, and we may consider Vyasa as symbolising the
power of inspiration, the power which diffuses and
extends downwards the higher knowledge.

Yajha: The ritual sacrifices of the Vedas. In the Gita it
means sacrifice in the more general sense.

Yoga: Union, joining. The Path on which the self is united
to the Self and the Self to the All. Teaching about that
Path. Also (as the Sovereign Yoga, Gita, ix, 5) the union
of the Shanta Atman with the Mula-prakriti which brings
about the Cosmic process.

Yukta: Joined, united; also fit, right, or suitable.

NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND
PRONUNCIATION OF SANSKRIT TER’MS

Certain departures have been made from the standard system
of transliteration in the interests of the general reader. The
difference in pronunciation between the palatal and lin gual
sibilants not being easily perceptible, sh is used for both and ri
has been used instead of r in such words as prakriti. Anusmra
has been rendered by n but only when before s as in ahinsa
(pron. ahingsa). In other combinations the pronunciation is
natural, and a plain n has been used as in Sankhya.

Western readers unfamiliar with Sanskrit may disregard the
diacritical marks except those over the vowels, as few West-
erners even in India seem able to discriminate between t, d,
etc. (dental), and t, d, etc. (lingual). The following brief
notes may be helpful.

Pronounce a as u in English cup, a as in farm, i as in hit.

224 THE YOGA OF THE BHAGAVAT GITA

l as ee in sweet, u as in put , u as oo in pool, e as a in hate,
ai as in aisle, o as in hotel, au as ou in house, g is always hard
as in gig, ch always soft as in church. The pronunciation of
jn (as iajhdna) varies in different parts of India, but gy {gyana)
may perhaps be considered standard. Elsewhere j is as in
jest. The final a in such words as jMna, yoga, nirvana is
very short, in practice it is almost silent.